Caltech vice provost Dr. David Goodstein speaks on Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil. Goodstein sets out several "myths" of oil that he wants to show are false:

- $3 is too much for gasoline (it's cheaper than bottled water)
- Oil companies produce oil (they just extract what it took millions of years to create)
- We must conserve energy (it's actually a law of physics - fuel is what we conserve
- "When we run out of oil the marketplace will take care of it" (that’s just what economists say)
- There’s enough fossil fuel in the ground to last centuries
- Nuclear energy is dangerous (it's not, but it can't solve all of our problems)
- The greenhouse effect and global warming are bad (they make life on earth possible, but anthropogenic warming is still dangerous).

Goodstein, a physicist by training, is an advocate of "peak oil" theory, and presents the all-too familiar graphs of M. King Hubbert illustrating "Hubbert's Peak." While Hubbert's prediction of when U.S. onshore oil production would peak was controversial, he proved correct. He notes that today oil discoveries are declining while extraction is increasing, yet proven oil reserves are climbing. This is because proven reserves are a "political" number and not an actual measure of oil available in the ground. The peak in production is imminent, Goodstein says. We don't quite know what the impact of a peak will be, but the oil crises of 1972 and 1979 were "dry runs." When it happens it will "not be temporary," rather it will be permanent.

As cautionary notes, Goodstein does point out that technological increases are the equivalent of new discoveries in terms of their effect on supply and that price increases do make more oil available. Proven reserves are a measure of what can be extracted economically, not what exists in the ground. Nonetheless, he believes the peak is approaching rapidly. This is a concern because so much modern civilization, particularly modern transportation, depends on the use of fossil fuels.

Goodstein next takes on the economic argument that as oil prices increase, other fossil fuels will be substituted for oil. Alternative fuels, such as natural gas, or only a temporary solution, Goodstein argues. He also discounts the potential for shale oil or methane hydrate to make a difference. Coal can be liquefied to substitute for oil, but it is intolerably dirty (containing mercury, arsenic, and sulfur). Moreover, if coal production were to replace oil, coal use would have to increase by a factor of five, requiring the mining of coal on an intolerable scale and causing a rapid depletion of coal reserves. Indeed, Goodstein predicts that the Hubbert's Peal for coal would occur within a century.

Goodstein argues that the peak of oil will occur at some point soon – perhaps as soon as ten to twenty years. Making a shift to alternatives exceedingly important. Such a transition, such as to nuclear and solar power, will be difficult and costly, however, and will take many years.

In closing, Goodstein offers a prediction: "Civilization as we know it will come to an end sometime in this century, when the fuel runs out." Wheras most scientists hope their predictions are proven true, because it shows how smart they are, Goodstein hopes his predictions is wrong.