Aug 23, 2004 — Man has nearly depleted the energy source we once thought inexhaustible, according to California Institute of Technology Vice Provost and Professor of Physics David Goodstein in his new book Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil. Goodstein delivered the Van Sickle Endowed Lecture at Clarkson's convocation August 23, 2004.
     Goodstein makes the case that global oil production will peak and then begin to decline sooner than most people think, possibly even in this decade, and that all efforts to deal with the problem on an emergency basis are doomed to fail. A return to coal for heating and cooking will increase greenhouse gases in our atmosphere and eventually tip earth's climate into a new state hostile to life.