Each new age in man's existence has brought about remarkable advancements and vast improvements in the lives of many members of the human family. But we now find ourselves in a race against time. The Earth and its atmosphere are showing the effects of our massive overconsumption of the planet's finite natural resources. Oil is becoming an increasingly scarce resource. The supply is finite and is peaking. The price at the pump is spiraling relentlessly upward. Our dependence on dirty, fossil forms of energy is off the scale and no longer manageable. Beyond that, our bloated consumption of fossil energy is driving the ominous phenomenon known as global warming. It is polluting our skies, our waterways, and our oceans. The environmental, social, and economic impact of our oil addiction amounts to the greatest challenge ever faced by humankind.

We all have a stake in building a future that is both sustainable and equitable for all the world's people. Because energy is the lifeblood of civilization, the foundation for a prosperous, healthy, and secure future will be built on a new kind of energy currency.

If we could write the script for our energy future, and could select the characteristics of our replacement for oil, what might we ask for? Would we want our choice to be clean with no polluting emissions? Would we wish for it to be nontoxic? Would we hope for it to be limitless in quantity so we would never run out? Would we ask that it be at least as safe as the fuels to which we are accustomed? Would we want it to be universally available so that all the world's people are empowered equally? Would we seek an alternative that is easily adaptable to a broad range of applications? Would we want a fuel that we could safely make in our own homes? How about a fuel that when it is used it produces its own feedstock? It turns out that of the handful of energy choices being promoted as alternatives, there is one fuel that closely fits the script we would choose to write. That fuel is hydrogen.

Hydrogen produced from clean, renewable sources of energy will have a central role in resolving the ills of our ailing planet. Geoffrey B. Holland and James J. Provenzano's hallmark book The Hydrogen Age details just how this remarkable energy carrier has been fundamental to the workings of the universe since the beginning of time, and why it is now ready to play a central part in healing our Earth, our atmosphere, and the world's economies as a clean-energy commodity. Welcome to The Hydrogen Age!