When you talk or hear discussions about global warming and the 19th and 20th centuries’ destructive tendencies which have created a swelling doomsday scenario of points of no return and inevitable freeze or burn, do you ever wondered if anyone is actually doing anything?

Of course they are.

Consider the scientists tracking weather patterns in frozen northern oceans, grassroots activists keeping the message in the eye of the public, and U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Bainbridge) he puts whose congressional energies have enacted law bolstering the country’s use of clean energy.

Serving on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Inslee is in the know. And he knows that knowledge is power.

So he’s put it into this book — “Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy” — which he co-authored with Bracken Hendricks, a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress who works on issues of climate change and energy independence, environmental protection, infrastructure investment, and economic policy.

Inslee will speak about the book at 7 p.m. Oct. 13 at Eagle Harbor Books in the Winslow district of Bainbridge Island.

“Apollo’s Fire” compares today’s quest for clean energy to the 1960’s space race (hence the name of the book). President John F. Kennedy launched the original Apollo Project in 1961, sparking a revolution in space exploration, now more than 40 years later, the Apollo Energy Project aims to revolutionize America’s production of energy.

“The world is too beautiful a place to let global warming spoil,” Inslee said. “We Americans have the brains, the strength, and the courage to tame this beast. All we need is the confidence of a clear vision to get this job started.”

By telling the stories of unsung heroes like small businesspeople and engineers, tinkerers and visionaries, “Apollo’s Fire” paints a picture of the people who can make change happen.

Through unity, small businesses, both existing and yet to develop, hold the key to creating cleaner energy, Inslee said. That’s why a bevy of his legislation aims to create incentives and action in that sector.

It also keys in on emission awareness and global warming address.

In a recent pair of successful amendments co-authored by he and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, (D-Vermont), the duo helped one provide debt and equity capital to small companies who’s work is on technology and goods that reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and increase assistance for low-income small businesses while using federal funds to pay for making new and existent facilities energy efficient.

But reaching beyond the small businesses climate, “Apollo’s Fire” is written for any citizen seriously concerned about the dangers of climate change. And it offers the track to possible solutions.

Online, www.apollosfire.net, offers a forum for readers and citizens to offer up their solutions as well in a section of the Web site devoted to “your stories” where people can write in and share what they are doing to help combat this global threat.

“I hope you will join me in starting this clean energy revolution. This is our destiny,” Inslee says on the Web site. “Let’s seize it.”