This review is supposed to supply to the reader the necessary facts to judge where we stand today in terms of the energy crisis, and what has to be done to save humanity from a catastrophic energy shortage.

1. Introduction 2. Energy and human development 3. Populations changes and energy requirements 4. Entropy and the industrial society 5. Main sources of energy 6. Status and future of energy industry based on coal 7. Renewable energy sources 8. Nuclear vs chemical energy sources 9. Status and future of nuclear (fission) reactors 10. Fusion vs fission energy sources 11. Status of fusion ene4rgy sources 12. Technical status of solar energy sources 13. Technical status of solar energy sources: photovoltaic energy conversion 14. Cogeneration 15. Solar energy satellites 16. Hydrogen production 17. Hydrogen as a storage medium 18. Hydrogen as a main energy carrier 19. Progress in the design of batteries 20. The electric car 21. Comparison of energy gain figures 22. Environmental impact 23. Energy and industrial development 24. Future scenario for energy source distribution 25. The consequences of the connection between energy and food