A Beautiful Planet calls Earth's atmosphere "a delicate cocoon of air that shields us from our star's radiation." Of course, the atmosphere doesn't completely block electromagnetic radiation from the Sun; without some sunlight reaching the surface, plants could not harvest the Sun's energy, and practically no life as we know it could exist. The atmosphere's ozone layer does filter out much of the harmful ultraviolet light (or "UV rays") produced by the Sun. UV rays can cause skin cancer, and catastrophic damage to the ozone layer may have contributed to Earth's most extensive mass extinction of species ever, the End-Permian extinction (also known
Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil is a 2004 book written by David Goodstein. It describes peak oil and the future of civilization. The book gives the scientific view that the age of petroleum is coming to an end, and the future is dangerously insecure. Oil demand will shortly exceed the production capacity of even the largest suppliers. The book describes how the world economy is moving towards an uneasy transition. In this book, Goodstein rejected the notion that after peak occurs new alternative sources of