Our rate of oil discovery has reached its peak and will never be exceeded;
rather, it is certain to decline perhaps rapidly forever forward. Meanwhile,
over the past century, we have developed lifestyles firmly rooted in the promise
of an endless, cheap supply. In this book, David Goodstein, professor of physics
at Caltech, explains the underlying scientific principles of the inevitable
fossil fuel shortage we face. He outlines the drastic effects a fossil fuel
shortage will bring down on us. And he shows that there is an important silver
lining to the need to switch to other sources of energy, for when we have burned
up all