The Global Energy Crisis
Websites devoted to the global energy crisis
and related issues
A new era of sustainable energy is dawning.
Decisions must be informed by analysis and science.
New at Planetforlife
The Planetforlife website has not been updated for seven years. The price of oil has plunged and no one talks
about Peak Oil anymore. Fracking has changed everything. Bringing it up-to-date would be a monumental task.
There are many broken links and some of them will be fixed.
Mission Statement
Find out what inspired the creation of this website.
Baloney Detector
Is it science? Or is it baloney? Let Carl Sagan explain how to tell the difference.
Book Reviews, etc.
Book reviews, magazine articles, recent news and reader comments may be found here.
The View From Space
Who left the lights on? NASA answers that question for the whole planet.
A statement of the problem in capsule form
Abundant and economical energy is the life blood of modern civilizations. The bargraph shows oil, coal and natural gas together supplying 85 percent of the world's energy supply in 2008.
Coal, nuclear and hydro are used primarily to make electricity. Natural gas
is widely used for heating. Biomass, which usually means wood or dried dung,
is used for heating and cooking. The red sliver is wind and solar power, primarily.
The red sliver may be small, but it is the future because wind and solar power
are sustainable.
Oil powers almost all machines that move and that makes oil uniquely versatile.
Oil powered airplanes carry 500 people across the widest oceans at nearly
the speed of sound. Oil powered machines produce and transport food. In North
America there are many more seats in oil powered vehicles than there are people. Oil
powered machines are ubiquitous. Clearly, we live in the age of oil, but
the age of oil is drawing to a close.
If oil production remains constant until it's gone, there is enough to last
42 years. Oil wells produce less as they become depleted which will make it
impossible to keep production constant. Similarly, there is enough natural
gas to last 61 years and there is enough coal to last 133 years. Nearly everyone
realizes oil and gas will become scarce and expensive within the life times
of living humans. Inevitably, there will be a transition to sustainable energy
sources. The transition may be willy-nilly or planned--the choice is ours.
Consider the implications of the following facts;
* The United States consumes 25 percent of the world's oil and 70 percent of
that is imported.
* 61 percent of the world's oil reserves are in the Middle East. The United
States has 2.4 percent.
* 66.3 percent of the world's gas reserves are in the Middle East and
the Russian Federation. The United States has 3.4 percent.
Because of our numbers and our technology, we humans greatly influence the
ecology of Earth. We humans, qualified or not, are at the controls. Earth
does not come with an operating manual. We humans need to look to science
to create one.
The coming era of limited and expensive energy will be very difficult for
everyone on Earth but it will be even more difficult if it is not anticipated.
It is of utmost importance that the public and especially policymakers understand
the global energy crisis and the underlying science.
How to use this site
This is a large site and there are many links. The navigation buttons can take you everywhere. But there is another way. You can use Google to search this website. Try searching for Deepwater Horizon or TAPS.