Matthew Simmons and Daniel Yergin disagree as to whether oil supply will be increasing or decreasing by 2010.

However, the little recognized real issue is what geologist John Atcheson has called a “Ticking Time Bomb�. Methane, released by the rapidly melting permafrost in the arctic, is a greenhouse gas twenty times more potent as a cause of global warming than carbon dioxide. Last month scientists announced that an area in Siberia, the size of France and Germany combined, reveals permafrost melted in the last five years to a degree not seen since the last ice age, 11,000 years ago.

New science is opening the way to fuel-free power and propulsion and a turnaround of Global Warming. Conventional wisdom suggests we will be dependent on oil, gas, coal and nuclear power for the foreseeable future. Alternative energy is thought to be limited to solar, wind, fuel-cells and biofuels, etc. However, a revolutionary family of energy conversion technologies has emerged that is likely to prove extremely important. This breakthrough requires no fuel and produces no pollution. It opens a path to cost competitive electric power, automotive, and later aerospace propulsion.

Scientists have long been aware that the earth is immersed in an extremely dense sea of energy, which permeates every nook and cranny of the universe. It is only recently that it was realized that this huge reservoir could be an available source of usable energy. With some notable exceptions, e.g. Paul Dirac, we have been, like fish, unaware of the ocean.