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WORK TITLE: Buying Time
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Tokyo
STATE:
COUNTRY: Japan
NATIONALITY: Japanese
http://www.energyasiapac.com/?author=1
RESEARCHER NOTES: FOUND A COUPLE OF BIO TIDBITS IN INTRODUCTION TO HIS BOOK ON GOOGLE BOOKS!–DP
PERSONAL
Born in Japan; immigrated to United States at the age of six; married; children: a daughter.
EDUCATION:Attended Columbia University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Private investor and writer. Worked at Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Katz Makabe was born in Japan but grew but move to the United States with his family at the age of six. He eventually returned to Japan where he is a private investor. Makabe was walking the streets of Tokyo on March 11, 2011 when the Tohuku earthquake hit. The earthquake resulted in a devastating nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi reactor, leading to thousands of Japanese having to relocate. The accident led the Japanese government to begin to rethink its use of nuclear power as a major source of power. Meanwhile, Makabe was inspired to research how Japan’s electric grid worked.
In his book Buying Time: Environmental Collapse and the Future of Energy, Makabe examines the issue of nuclear power facilities in Japan and the wider world within the context of the world’s energy future. “Shortly after the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, my reflexive response was that Japan should shut all nuclear power plants and forgo further deployment” of new plants, Makabe writes in the introduction to Buying Time. Makabe, however, goes on to point out that Japan with no nuclear power whatsoever would probably become increasingly dependent on “imported energy” and that Japan would likely be unable to reduce its carbon footprint for quite some time until renewable energy technologies became more developed.
“This realization made me examine the broad topic of energy resilience further,” writes Makabe in Buying Time, adding: “Japan’s energy problems are but a microcosm of a key issue facing the world today: How do we secure enough energy to support the complexity of modern civilization without breaking the bank and jeopardizing our environment?” For Makabe, as he writes in Buying Time, cost-efficient clean energy in plentiful supply “is the key to sustaining the positive trajectory of our civilization.”
Makabe goes on in Buying Time to examine the state of the environment and the important choices to be made concerning energy resources for a rapidly growing world population. In addition to discussing climate change Makabe reports on environmental issues such as the extinction of species and the growing water crisis in many countries. Makabe’s concerns about the environment are also connected to economic issues such as worldwide unemployment and general economic instability. Makabe includes a discussion of the impact that advances in robotics will have on the worldwide economy and employment, writing: “Accelerating innovation in robotics and AI [artificial intelligence] … threatens to forever alter the landscape for employment and render obsolete the model of global capitalism based on wage-earning consumers moving up the value change and driving growth.”
Makabe makes hs case that issues surrounding energy are intricately connected to economic issues and employment. He also delves into energy policy issues, such as renewable energy sources and its potential to replace fossil fuels. In his final analysis concerning nuclear power, Makabe discusses myths about nuclear power and acknowledges that it likely is necessary at this point to reduce carbon-emitting fossil fuels. “Makabe … synthesizes a wealth of illuminating information into a lucid, thoughtful analysis of the future of energy systems,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor.
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Makabe, Kaz, Buying Time: Environmental Collapse and the Future of Energy, ForeEdge (Lebanon, NH), 2017.
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, January 30, 2017, review of Buying Time, p. 192.*
KAZ MAKABE was born in Japan. He moved to New York at the age of six. He attended Columbia University, and has worked at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase. He lives in Tokyo and travels frequently.
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Print Marked Items
Buying Time: Environmental Collapse and
the Future of Energy
Publishers Weekly.
264.5 (Jan. 30, 2017): p192.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Buying Time: Environmental Collapse and the Future of Energy
Kaz Makabe. ForeEdge, $27.95 (296p)
ISBN 978-1-61168-931-0
Civilization will come crashing down from climate change and other planetary crises unless we switch to
clean energy, according to this uneven primer on sustainability by fund manager Makabe. He tours a variety
of looming disasters, focusing on climate change but also touching on an array of phenomena including
species loss, water shortages, and rising unemployment and economic instability caused by the impending
"robot takeover." Makabe argues that energy is the thread connecting all these dysfunctions and broaches a
sketchy theory of how "complex adaptive systems"--from the Roman Empire to the modern global financial
system--erode and eventually implode when their marginal energy surpluses dwindle. He's more compelling
when discussing specific energy policies. A section on renewable energy sources is hopeful about their
potential to help replace fossil fuels but skeptical about their ability to do it alone, especially unreliable
intermittent sources such as wind and solar power. The book's strongest chapters contain an extensive
discussion of nuclear power that dispels much of the alarmism surrounding the technology and contends that
it must play a major role in a low-carbon power system. Makabe rambles at times, but he synthesizes a
wealth of illuminating information into a lucid, thoughtful analysis of the future of energy systems. Illus.
(Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Buying Time: Environmental Collapse and the Future of Energy." Publishers Weekly, 30 Jan. 2017, p. 192.
General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA480195229&it=r&asid=868b3d2c3d64a3ece9a0b66990cc8293.
Accessed 8 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A480195229