Why We Struggle to Go Green
Hard Truths About the Clean Energy Transition

Thomas Manuel Ortiz (Author)

9781965766286

Paperback / softback, published 23 September 2025

260 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.382 kg

"This book will make you understand that the magic bullet everybody is hoping will come to cure all ills of climate change will actually end up in our foot — or worse — unless we also change the general course of our society." —Olivier Germain, Director, Technology and Strategic Business Development, Halliburton Digital Solutions

"Dr. Ortiz offers an accessible and relatable approach to understanding the complexities of climate change science. Anyone who thinks there is a have your cake and eat it too solution to climate change should read Why We Struggle to Go Green." —Keri Collins, Energy Industry Veteran

"Holistic, courageous, confronting, popularizing without simplifying, factual and packed with references. If you only read one book a year, buy this book and read it!” — Brigitte Ploix-Gaydon, Engineer, Mediator, Therapist

Clean energy won’t save us from the effects of climate change.

Amid corporate Net Zero campaigns, the politics of the Green New Deal, and the calls to abandon fossil fuels for renewable technology — or vice versa — lies a troubling truth: No clean technological solutions can solve the problem of human-induced climate change.

To find a credible path to a sustainable future, we must set aside hopes of building our way out of humanity's addictions to energy and material convenience. In Why We Struggle to Go Green, Tom Ortiz offers a clear-eyed assessment of our efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. As a mechanical engineer who has traversed the conventional and renewable energy landscapes for 30 years, Ortiz provides an in-depth yet easy-to-understand assessment of the harsh reality facing mankind.

Bridging the gap between academic research and journalism, Ortiz shows why there are no easy answers in the energy transition. Beginning with a general overview of human energy use and a summary of key physical constraints on energy and natural resource extraction, the book details five pillars of the transition: electrification, carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, recycling, and carbon pricing. Ortiz concludes with recommendations for changes society can make that, while perhaps painful and controversial, will reduce our collective environmental impact and bequeath a more manageable legacy to future generations.

Why We Struggle to Go Green cuts through the hype and rhetoric to offer something rare: climate change realism from someone who’s spent decades looking for solutions.