The Return of the Solar Cat Book: Mixing Cat Wisdom with Science and Solar Politics

by Jim Augustyn, with illustrations by Hildy Paige Burns. Patty Paw Press, Berkeley, California, 2003; 88 pages, softcover, $14.95. Distributed by Chelsea Green Publishing Company, White River Junction, Vermont. For more information or to order, visit www.solarcat.com.

This lighthearted tribute to cats and the sun was inspired by the recognition that “cats know a good thing when they see one, be it a fresh, juicy fish or an efficient energy source. People are equally perceptive regarding fish,” the book’s author, Jim Augustyn, points out, “but have some trouble recognizing good energy options.” And so Augustyn wrote

The Solar Cat Book to fill that gap. Devotees of that 1979 cult classic will find most of the original text intact in

The Return of the Solar Cat Book, released in 2003, along with “new material reflecting actual human progress in a few areas of solar energy.”

Using wit, sarcasm, and a healthy dose of irreverence, Augustyn compares cats’ innate appreciation for the sun to our own more convoluted attempts to use solar energy. Delightful drawings by Hildy Paige Burns bring the text to life. Don’t be fooled by the book’s entertainment value, though. Heaps of good, entry-level information are packed between the punch lines. Augustyn describes different types of cats, beginning with passive and active varieties, and compares them to “people’s systems.” He goes on to describe the basics of deriving energy from both solar and wind resources.

Though little of the book is overtly political, Augustyn cleverly opines throughout. A short history of White House energy policy applauds President Carter’s “remarkably cat-like” description of the energy crisis as the Moral Equivalent of War (MEOW), and credits the current President Bush’s “unmatched business and linguistic skills” for his energy policy of More Energy With Oil (MEWO). One drawing displays Augustyn’s plan for mounting a wind generator atop the U.S. Capitol Building—such a generator would be especially effective, he points out, due to the local velocity of hot air. Augustyn’s commentary also addresses larger issues. “People usually engage in energy conversation when they would be much better off engaging in energy conservation. It may be a simple matter of the two words being so similar that people just can’t tell the difference.” A footnote at the bottom of the page explains that “It may also be due to a basic confusion between the meanings of virtue and necessity.”

The book’s glossary offers creative definitions:

Nuclear waste is “a source of really really long-term job security,”

sustainability is “a physical impossibility but a nice sentiment nonetheless,” and

war is “the most efficient waste of time and energy yet devised by humans.” An appendix suggests further, though far less entertaining, reading.

– JB