The big questions: How do we use science and technology so that spaceship Earth will be a place for all life to exist? How do we address the two major problems of overconsumption and overpopulation? We are citizens of the planet Earth, and within your lifetime there will major decisions over the following: energy (including food), water, minerals, land, environment, and war (which I can state will happen with 99.9% probability). The previous statement on war was written over 30 years ago when Nelson first taught introductory courses on wind energy and solar energy. Since then, the United States has been involved in a number of armed conflicts, so the prediction on war was easily fulfilled.

This third edition contains updates on wind energy installation and capacity and fossil fuel production. The section on distributed wind has been expanded and a new section on repowering anddecommissioning has been added.

最大的问题是：我们如何利用科学技术，使宇宙飞船地球成为所有生命存在的地方？我们如何解决过度消费和人口过剩这两个主要问题？我们是地球的公民，在你的有生之年，我们将在以下方面做出重大决定：能源（包括食物）、水、矿产、土地、环境和战争（我可以说，这将以99.9%的概率发生）。上一篇关于战争的声明写于30多年前，当时纳尔逊第一次教授风能和太阳能的入门课程。从那时起，美国卷入了多次武装冲突，战争预言很容易实现。

这第三版包含了风能装机容量和化石燃料生产的更新。关于分布式风的章节已经扩大，并增加了一个关于重新供电和停运的新章节。