Just finished reading the new book by Ramez Naam called The Infinite Resource: The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet. The book explores our current resource shortages and environmental problems, and argues that the power of innovation is equal to the task of overcoming them--based on the history (and present) of innovation, as well as a theoretical understanding of what drives it. It's a brilliant book, and has gone straight into my top 10 of all time. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/04/30...
Cheers,
Aaron