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Since thousands of years, the human race has been developing cultural skills and technological capabilities that support its struggle for survival and lead to dominance over all other species. Since about a century, the exponential growth of knowledge, technology, industry and population (see Fig. 1.1) has reached a scale where man modifies biosphere to an extent, that living conditions on the whole planet earth start to change significantly. Resources that had been abundant are becoming scarce within decades.

All living species including the human body consist mainly of carbon and water, or—to be more precise—they consist of hydrocarbons and other chemical compounds that are dominated by the elements carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. So, it is not surprising that the carbon and water cycles are of special importance for mankind. Carbon and water in the form of food and beverage have two very different functions: they supply humans with energy and in addition they are the basic building blocks of the body. Stable, closed loops of water and carbon on our planet guaranteed our survival since the beginning of mankind.

The global energy transition is a complex and difficult process and neither its pathways nor its target points are well defined. Typically, in political debates the aim and the technologies of the transition are subject to belief, prejudice or a hidden agenda. Governments in a democratic system may be forced by public pressure to take action, however, in order not to lose majorities, only small steps are taken to have a minimum of collateral damage to existing power structures and interest groups and to minimize opposition.

The global energy problem is the result of our modern economy and of our basic style of living. We have to consider fundamental changes of our socio-economic systems to find a sustainable solution. A technical solution alone will not be sufficient. This book, written by a physicist, does not raise the claim to solve the socio-economic problems of our modern world. Nevertheless, the view of a scientist might be useful to emphasize a few things that go wrong in our society.

The book has been written with the intention to give the reader an overview of today’s energy problem, which is caused by the demographic, sociologic and economic conditions of our modern human society and which is embedded in the complex ecosystem of the earth’s biosphere. It is written from the viewpoint of a physicist who is educated in studying complex systems. The proposed solutions for the energy transition are based on general physical considerations and take recent developments in technology into account. The political aspects of the book are based on the conviction of the author, have no stringent scientific validity and are meant as stimuli in the search of the reader for valid solutions.