Brewed Fresh Daily

World oil production will peak within this decade, or, in the best-case scenarios, sometime in the next decade, says David Goodstein in a new book, The End of the Age of Oil. Once that happens, the world supply of oil will begin to decline gradually, even though large quantities of oil will remain in the ground. The world demand for oil will continue to increase. The gap between supply and demand will grow. There will be no other source of oil to flow into the system. In the best-case scenario, he writes, we can squeak through a bumpy transition to a natural-gas economy while nuclear power plants are built to get us past the oil crisis. In the worst case, "runaway inflation and worldwide depression leave many billions of people with no alternative but to burn coal in vast quantities for warmth, cooking and primitive industry."* But even current known reserves of uranium can supply the earth's energy needs for only 25 years at best. "Unfortunately, our present national and international leadership is reluctant even to acknowledge that there is a problem. The crisis will occur, and it will be painful."