Streaming Video: "Energy Crisis: Mankind's Future After Oil", Dr. Bhakta Rath, Naval Research Academy
 Dr. Bhakta B. Rath heads the Materials Science Directorate and is an Associate Director of Research of the Naval Research Laboratory. He is responsible for planning, supervision, and administration of all basic and applied research in physical and natural sciences conducted by a staff of over 720 scientists and engineers and with a budget of over $ 240M.
Dr. Rath received a B.S. degree in physics and mathematics from Utkal University, an M.S. in metallurgical engineering from Michigan Technological University in 1958, and a Ph.D. from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Dr. B. B. Rath Biography and Web Page at NRL
He is the author/coauthor of over 200 archival papers and has edited over 20 books on various topics in materials science and engineering. He serves on the editorial boards of a number of international technical journals, is a fellow and member of the boards of directors and trustees of several technical societies and served as the President of the American Society for Materials. He has given in excess of 300 keynote and distinguished lectures worldwide in the emerging areas in physical sciences.
He is a member of several steering, planning, review, and advisory boards of Government agencies, universities and technical societies. He has received numerous awards, including the Naval Research Laboratory’s highest recognition, “The NRL Lifetime Achievement Award” (2004). Recently he was recognized by the Secretary of Defense as one of the six recipients of DoD with “The Distinguished Civilian Service Award”, and received “The Distinguished Presidential Rank Award”, the highest honor presented by the President of the U.S. to a senior executive of the Government.
For a number of years Dr. Rath has championed R&D needs for energy independence and has served in the DOE Deputy Assistant Secretary’s advisory and planning committee on methane hydrate research and development to provide alternate energy resources for the nation.
The subject of his seminar August 10, 2007 was Energy Crisis: Mankind’s Future After Oil.
 Global consumption of energy is staggering. The U.S. Department of Energy projects the total world consumption to rise by 59% between 1999 and 2020, from 382 to 607 quads per year (one quad being defined as 1015 BTU and equivalent to more than 7 billion gallons of petroleum). The same report predicts a 20% increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, equivalent to approximately ten billion metric pounds of carbon. Another complication in the energy equation is that global population will increase from 6.0 to 7.5 billion during the same period.
The impact of these projections may have profound implications. Hydrocarbon-based fuel has significantly increased in comparison to coal or natural gas. Renewable energy resources are limited by their availability and/or cost. Virtually the entire existing energy for transportation relies on fossil fuels. Undoubtedly, we will remain dependent on hydrocarbon combustion for the foreseeable future. We can no longer afford to ignore the long-term impacts of continued hydrocarbon combustion. Impacts of various alternate energy resources are reviewed.
Methane hydrates, abundantly present along the continental margins and in the permafrost regions of the artic, provide an unique opportunity as a possible alternate energy source. It is essential to develop a long-term plan to deal with the use of alternative energy sources. Topics related to three most pressing problems of future mankind; energy, water and environment and their implications to current research needs are discussed.
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