Ted Nace

Ted Nace (born 1956) is an American writer, publisher, and environmentalist, known for his criticisms of corporate personhood and his support of a fossil fuel phase out. In 2009, he was described as "one of the amazing brains and strategists behind the anti-coal movement."

He is the co-founder of Peachpit Press and the founder of Global Energy Monitor.

Early life Ted Nace was born in California and grew up in Dickinson, North Dakota. In 1974, he graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.

In 1985, he founded Peachpit Press with Michael Gardner, initially working out of his apartment in the San Francisco Bay Area.

As the company grew in size and sales, it published books about Mac computers and became a leader in books about digital graphics, with a MacBible series, Real World series, and Visual QuickStart (VQS) series.

Writing In the 1980s, Nace began writing freelance essays, including regular contributions to Orion Magazine. Nace has criticized corporations such as General Motors for having too much political influence. GM headquarters in New York City. After he left Peachpit, his work increasingly focused on the relation between corporations and democracy in America. He reflected on his own career as a business owner:

Nace writes that as the corporate institution developed it got "too much power" in the United States. Alan T. Saracevic, a reviewer at the San Francisco Chronicle, writes that Gangs of America makes a case that corporations have evolved to an "abusive state of being."

Climate Hope Nace's second book, Climate Hope: On the Front Lines of the Fight Against Coal (2010) is a first-person chronicle of the anti–coal movement. Tina Gerhardt, the environmental journalist, lauded the book and described its climate agenda as "do-able".

Environmental activism In the mid-2000s, Nace turned his focus to anti-coal activism. He became active in efforts to block the development and use of coal power plants in the United States through sit–ins at coal mines and banks. At the time, he argued that coal usage was creating a "clear planetary crisis" but that implementing a solution is being blocked by "well-financed lobbying and PR sponsored by the coal and utility companies." He was described in the Huffington Post as "one of the amazing brains and strategists behind the anti-coal movement."

Global Energy Monitor In 2007, Nace founded CoalSwarm, a website affiliated with Earth Island Institute, to share information similar to Wikipedia and Citizendium, but focused on coal. In 2009, Coalswarm started a tracker database of global coal-fired power stations that became "widely respected" by academic researchers, media outlets, and governments. In 2018, Coalswarm changed its name to Global Energy Monitor and became an independent organization, expanding coverage to include natural gas pipelines, steel plants, coal mines, and other energy infrastructures.

Publications Books Climate Hope: On the Front Lines of the Fight Against Coal, by Ted Nace, 2010. , 288 pages, paperback. Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy by Ted Nace, 2003. Desktop Publishing Secrets by Robert C. Eckhardt, Ted Nace, Bob Weibel, October 1991, Peachpit Press Ventura Tips and Tricks, 3rd edition, by Ted Nace, Daniel Will-Harris, September 1990, Peachpit Press Desktop publishing skills: a primer for typesetting with computer and laser printer, by James Felici, Ted Nace, May 1987, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc.