From:
http://www.wwnorton.com/catalog/fall03/005857.htm

Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil
by David Goodstein

$21.95 Hardcover 128 pages
Published February 2nd 2004
ISBN: 0393058573

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Book Description

Science tells us that an oil crisis is inevitable. Why and when? And what
will our future look like without our favorite fuel?

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 the available oil, the
earth's climate will have moved toward a truly life-threatening state.

With its easy-to-grasp explanations of the science behind every aspect of
our most urgent environmental policy decisions, Out of Gas is a handbook for
the future of civilization. Charts, graphs, photographs.

About the Author

David Goodstein, vice provost and Frank J. Galloon Distinguished Teaching
and Service Professor at the California Institute of Technology, is the
author of Feynman's Lost Lecture, among other works.

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~dg
dg@ cco.caltech.edu
California Institute of Technology
Vice Provost's Office
104 Parsons-Gates - Mail Code 104-31
Pasadena, CA 91125
626.395.6365 Fax: 626.796.7820

Judy Post
Administrative Assistant
626.395.6339

Phase Transitions and States of Matter
Prof. David Goodstein's Group
Condensed Matter Physics
http://www.cmp.caltech.edu/~dggroup
(lab): 626-395-2953

Energy, Technology and Climate: Running Out of Gas (PDF File)
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~dg/Essay2.pdf

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In this pithy primer on what might replace oil as civilization's fuel, a
Caltech professor explains the fundamentals of energy, engines, and entropy
for a mass audience. Goodstein opens with a quote from a geologist who
predicted in the 1950s, to derision, that U.S. oil reserves would inevitably
be depleted. Applying this reasoning to global reserves, Goodstein warns not
only that the last drop will be pumped by 2100 at the latest, but also that
peak production, estimated to occur in the current decade, marks the
beginning of a global shortage. So, start planning postpetroleum technology
now, exhorts the author. With exceptional conciseness, he presents the
constraints nature will impose on any fuel-technology combination, beginning
with explanations of exploitable sources of energy, continuing with how
chemical and nuclear bonds hold and release energy, and arriving at how any
engine, in principle, converts energy to work. Looking at fuels such as
methane or hydrogen, Goodstein sees not panaceas but, rather, life support
until a future arrives that lives on sunlight and nuclear fusion. Gilbert
Taylor

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