If you want to be inspired by the search to create a clean energy economy and stop global warming, check out Earth: The Sequel - The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming.

Written by Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp and journalist Miriam Horn, Earth: The Sequel takes a tour of emerging clean energy ventures. It tells the story of the scientists, businessmen, innovators, and risk-takers who are pushing technology to the limit in a quest to find new ways to create energy.

These include inventions such as flying windmills and artificial carbon-eating trees. The book examines breakthroughs in solar, wind, and biomass technologies, and explores how we will reinvent everything from cars to concrete and replace the old, dumb, centralized electrical grid with a smart, multidirectional energy network.

This hopeful vision challenges the familiar, grim model of business as usual. With smart national cap-and-trade policy, these new technologies can come online and help us avoid the worst of the unintended consequences of America’s energy appetite.