A new book featuring Ohio State researchers as editors and authors brings together important new research on site-level social, economic and behavioral impacts from large-scale energy development.
“Energy Impacts: A Multidisciplinary Exploration of North American Energy Development” features conceptual and empirical multidisciplinary research from leading social and physical scientists to understand the recent boom in North America’s renewable and non-renewable energy resources and how it has impacted these new energy regions.
Jeffrey Jacquet, assistant professor of food, agricultural and environmental sciences and Sustainability Institute affiliated, is lead editor of the book, which includes 12 chapters authored by more than 40 contributors, including Ohio State Extension faculty Myra L. Moss and Nancy Bowen-Ellzey, also in food, agricultural and environmental sciences, who are both Sustainability Institute affiliated faculty members.
Focused on varied energy topics, geographies and disciplines, each chapter includes a policy brief that summarizes the work and provides key takeaways to apply the findings to policy and public discourse. Meaningful public engagement is critical in limiting the negative implications of energy development, and understanding the social influences on and of energy systems is a cornerstone of addressing the climate crisis. As such, “Energy Impacts” is a significant work for students, scholars and professionals working in sociology, education, geography, environmental studies and public health.
The book is an outgrowth of the Energy Impacts Symposium, a two-day research conference hosted on the Ohio State University campus in 2017 and attended by more than 140 scientists from around the world. The Symposium was funded with help from the university’s Center for Energy Research, Training, and Innovation (CERTAIN) and its director, David Cole, earth sciences.
Cole and Jeffrey Bielicki, civil, environmental, and geodetic engineering, research leads for sustainable energy at the Sustainability Institute, said the importance of social and community issues with energy has been one of the pillars of the strategic planning for the institute’s sustainable energy program, and they look forward to continuing to support and advance this type of knowledge generation.