This textbook, written for a general-education audience, explores the scientific, economic, and social questions that arise from energy consumption, growth, and resource availability. The book takes a quantitative look at the past and current societal development and natural resource usage. It then explores potential alternative approaches to addressing these issues and their challenges.

The text has 4 main sections: Growth and its limitations, Fossil fuels and climate change, Alternative energy sources, and Going forward, each with multiple chapters with problems at the end. There is also math and science background references and an extensive bibliography.