Physics Today: Basic Choices and Constraints on Long−Term Energy Supplies

Population growth and energy demand are exhausting the world’s fossil energy supplies, some on the timescale of a single human lifespan. Increasingly, sharing natural resources will require close international cooperation, peace, and security.
As we enter a new millennium, we are growing increasingly concerned about the limits of our fossil fuels that are driving the world’s economies. Many journal articles, committee reports, and books have addressed this “energy problem”; they contain opinions, ideas, and suggestions from experts within their various subdisciplines on possible ways to improve our practices or innovate technologically. But a complex interdependence exists among the technological, social, and environmental aspects of energy use (see the articles in Physics Today, April 2002). Furthermore, many of the ideas researchers propose cannot significantly impact the real magnitude of the energy problem or may provide only short−term relief.

Physics Today