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Out of Gas: The End of the Age Of Oil (Paperback)

by David Goodstein (Author) "In the 1950s, the United States was the world's leading producer of oil..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, Sadi Carnot, Count von Rumford (more...)

3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Everyone agrees we will run out of fossil fuels someday-Goodstein, a Caltech professor, argues it will be sooner rather than later based on the petrochemical data available. In this alarming little book, portions of which were originally published in a bioethics journal, Goodstein explains with limited jargon that we will completely exhaust oil supplies within 10 years. He warns that we have reached, or even surpassed Hubbert's Peak, the moment when we have consumed half of all oil known to exist and will likely use the rest up even faster, due to ever-increasing demand and decreasing discoveries. What will we do when all the oil is gone? Goodstein outlines two scenarios, both chilling. In the worst case, we might run out of oil so fast that the only affordable alternative is coal. In this throwback future, Goodstein writes, "the greenhouse effect that results eventually tips Earth's climate into a new state hostile to life." The best case scenario involves a methane-based fuel economy that would bridge the gap until we could build up nuclear and solar power sources to meet our long-term needs. Goodstein admits that some geologists disagree that we will deplete all oil sources within this decade, but even conservative calculations predict the price of oil will increase beyond the reach of most people within the foreseeable future. "No matter what else happens," Goodstein states, "this is the century in which we must learn to live without fossil fuels." He maintains a cautious optimism about alternative energy sources, but readers may find little comfort imagining nuclear fission energy as the next best thing.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (February 17, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0393326470
ISBN-13: 978-0393326475
Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #378,643 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
In the 1950s, the United States was the world's leading producer of oil. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Sadi Carnot, Count von Rumford, James Watt, Middle East

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 11 books:

States of Matter (Dover Phoenix Editions) (Dover Phoneix Editions) by David L. Goodstein in Front Matter, and Back Matter
A Source Book in Physics (Source Books in the History of the Sciences) by William Francis Magie in Back Matter
The Mechanical Universe: Introduction to Mechanics and Heat by Richard P. Olenick in Front Matter
Beyond the Mechanical Universe: From Electricity to Modern Physics by Richard P. Olenick in Front Matter
Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire by Sadi Carnot on page 91

See all 11 books this book cites

10 books cite this book:

Sustainable Fossil Fuels: The Unusual Suspect in the Quest for Clean and Enduring Energy by Mark Jaccard on 5 pages
Children of the Sun: A History of Humanity's Unappeasable Appetite for Energy by Alfred W. Crosby on page 59, and Back Matter
Oil, Globalization, And the War for the Arctic Refuge by David M. Standlea in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
Blood of the Earth: The Battle for the World's Vanishing Oil Resources by Dilip Hiro in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
Take This Job and Ship It: How Corporate Greed and Brain-Dead Politics Are Selling Out America by Byron L. Dorgan on page 120

See all 10 books citing this book

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	78% buy the item featured on this page: Out of Gas: The End of the Age Of Oil 3.4 out of 5 stars (40) $11.16
	7% buy Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak 4.3 out of 5 stars (46) $9.89
	6% buy The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World 4.3 out of 5 stars (86) $10.17
	5% buy Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage (New Edition) 3.7 out of 5 stars (66) $12.71

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Customer Reviews

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135 of 153 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disjointed, but accurate information, March 2, 2004

By	CRC (Richardson, Texas USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil (Hardcover)

I have been researching the topic of oil depletion by reading (& buying!) many books. I was hoping that this small volume would provide a nice, condensed, well-argued version to hand to friends and family. I was wrong.

While Goodstein lays out the usual scenario regarding oil depletion and correctly explains differences between "remaining years" via the Hubbert's Peak method and the R/P method, much of the information is seemingly unconnected.

Yes, I know that the Laws of Thermodynamics apply. But I have read much clearer explanations of those laws in Freshman Physics in college. While "pithy", his explanations are not exactly clear or self-evident to the casual reader. And, once Thermodynamics are explored, the reader is left wondering WHY was all that explained? How does that connect to oil depletion? I know, because I have been studying this in other books, but this book does not link the theoretical explanations clearly with the problem of a shortage in oil production, available energy, etc.

I have read books that were longer and more clear on the subject; books that are a faster, easier and more understandable read than this brief volume. The first I would recommend is "The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies" by Richard Heinberg. This is an excellent well-rounded review of all issues regarding oil depletion.

For the reader who would like to explore the geological aspects in more depth (why can't we explore for more? what about making existing fields more productive? how is oil formed and where is it found?), I would recommend "Hubbert's Peak" by Kenneth Deffeyes, an associate of King Hubbert.

I'm sorry I paid so much for this slim little volume. Those books I recommended will cost you much less, are more clear, and easier to digest than this one.

Note: "Charts, graphs, photographs" in the Editors Review should be taken with a grain of salt. Yes, there are charts and illustrations, but they are simplistic. Some of the inserted illustrations are almost child-like.

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29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thermodynamics for Dummies, August 5, 2004

By	M. A. Plus "Advanced Atheist" (Mayer, Arizona) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil (Hardcover)

Goodstein's book stands out from others about Peak Oil I've read because he emphasizes the thermodynamic aspects of the oil problem. Economic reasoning about energy resources can be misleading because economics arose in the 18th Century and implicitly assumed the Newtonian scientific worldview before it incorporated the concepts of heat and entropy developed in the 19th Century. In other words, economics presupposes the existence of perpetual-motion machines. In the physical reality we have to live in, however, the "energy returned on energy invested" (EROEI) determines the true value of an energy resource. The good old-fashioned gushing oil wells we had 50-60 years ago had EROEI's of 100:1 or better, whereas current oil extraction has an EROEI around 10:1 on average and falling. When the EROEI of an energy resource falls down to 2:1 or less, the game is over because you aren't yielding enough energy to maintain an industrial civilization, much less to grow it. However we keep seeing physically ignorant economic analyses of alternative energy "sources" like ethanol-from-corn, Canadian oil sands, hydrogen fuel cells etc. that are really pseudoscientific because they have unity or worse EROEI's, even if the author can assign some arbitrary "price" to the final product that makes them seem "competitive" with real energy supplies.

Once you understand and integrate the thermodynamic aspect of the energy problem, you realize that the seemingly colossal reserve of oil sands in Alberta is useless and irrelevant if you can't extract it with a high enough EROEI. Moreover, any physically plausible way to capture a form of energy to replace oil will require a massive investment from the current and struggling stream of fossil fuels supplies for its construction, and it will have to generate an EROEI thereafter that is not only sufficient for our current needs, but also leaves plenty for building its replacements and further expanding the supply without having to dip into additional fossil fuels. Solar panels and windmills can't do this; the factories which make them don't run off of sunlight and wind, but are plugged into the regular electrical grid powered by coal, natural gas and nuclear. Until we can find the thermodynamic trap door that frees us from fossil fuels, we face the prospect of the "Dieoff" plausibly argued on certain Websites, especially considering that modern agriculture burns about ten calories of fossil fuels energy to deliver one calorie of food energy to our tables. Goodstein deserves a lot of credit for trying to get out the truth about the energy emergency, despite the cognitive resistance he's encountering from people who claim to be knowledgeable about physics yet who have been hypnotized by "economics."

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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Other reviewers miss the point, July 12, 2005

By	Bruce Kasanoff (Westport, CT United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil (Hardcover)

I have trouble understanding why so many people favor intellectual debate over meaningful action. We don't need longer books or more detailed technical explanations. Denser treatises won't heat our homes or transport us around the globe.

To me, the author's goal seems both simple and exceedingly well done: to paint an unvarnished picture of a world headed towards a disaster no one is taking seriously.

Like some other reviewers, I have been researching alternative energy sources to fossil fuels. At present, they are pitiful. This book explains why the alternatives are so bleak, and why finding better alternatives requires a huge undertaking for which we require a much stronger resolve than currently exists.

In my community, residents periodically "all" try to read the same book, and then discuss it. I wish everyone would read this book, not just in my town, but in towns and cities everywhere. It's understandable, direct, and extremely sobering. We don't need a better book on the subject; simply acting on this one would be a superb start.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Realistic, good introduction to fuel issues
Great overview of energy and fuel in current society. It explained some that I already knew, but never went too wonky or too simplistic. Read more

Published 3 months ago by S. Hill

4.0 out of 5 stars the end of oil
A simple easily read and understood description of the mess we are in written by one of the great teachers of the modern era. Read more

Published 11 months ago by Dr. A. James

4.0 out of 5 stars Out of Gas
I enjoyed this book very much. It's short and sweet and to the point. Mr David Goodstein is a physics and looks at the world in a test and measurement type of way. Read more

Published 12 months ago by keith renick

3.0 out of 5 stars Engines and Oil
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Published on July 10, 2007 by Brian Allen

4.0 out of 5 stars out of gas
This book asks the question "How long can the worldwide oil economy last"?
The answer: "Not very long". The age of oil is fast coming to a close. Read more

Published on November 10, 2006 by Vieme

5.0 out of 5 stars Succinct, focused, readable
For those of you who are just getting interested in the subject, David Goodstein's Out of Gas is the book you want to read first. Read more

Published on September 10, 2006 by Dennis Littrell

5.0 out of 5 stars Best introduction to fuel (oil) depletion I have read...
This book is a short read, so the review should be short, too. This is the best book on fuel depletion on the market, in my opinion: short, accurate, factual, non-polarizing,... Read more

Published on July 31, 2006 by Stephen Armstrong

2.0 out of 5 stars This book played fast with the facts
After reading this book, I sold my copy as a used book on Amazon --- and I almost never do this. I have read 5 books about the end of oil prior to reading OUT OF GAS, and I felt... Read more

Published on June 26, 2006 by A Writer

5.0 out of 5 stars A quick introduction to the peak oil concept
This book is a fine introduction to the concept of Hubbert's oil peak to those new to the subject. The first chapter is especially good. Read more

Published on February 10, 2006 by Paula L. Craig

3.0 out of 5 stars Confirms What Other Experts Have Said
Goodstein is Vice-Provost and Distinguished Professor at California Institute of Technology. He affirms Hubbert's conclusions that world oil production will peak in this decade,... Read more

Published on December 28, 2005 by Loyd E. Eskildson

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