In this short, sharp book, Richard Lyon – electrical engineer, petroleum engineer and energy economist – strips the energy debate back to the physics. What he finds is alarming: the fossil fuels are running out, the proposed replacements can't do the job and the people in charge don't understand the science well enough to realise. But this is not a counsel of despair. There is a way through – if we stop wasting what remains on systems that can't work and start building the one that can.