Energy and the Missing Resource: A View from the Laboratory

This 1989 book provides a nontechnical analysis of present and future energy resources and their potential development to meet future demand. The prevailing impression in popular discussion of future energy supply is that a crisis will occur, sooner or later, owing to the exhaustion of present resources. This informative and thought-provoking book demonstrates that sufficient resources are available to meet all energy needs for the foreseeable future. However, this does not remove the threat of an energy-supply crisis. What is lacking - the missing resource - is the knowledge of how to use these resources in a practical and environmentally acceptable manner. The author argues that long-term technical development will be necessary to ensure future energy sufficiency and that international cooperation on technical research, environmental impact, and energy use is needed now to prevent a succession of energy crises in the future. All those involved with energy in a technical, business, or governmental policy capacity will find book essential and rewarding reading.