What don't some of you realize? This is not a difficult concept.

Originally posted by syrinx high priest
humans are very adaptable, we'll find a way

Yes, but at what cost? How long must the common man suffer until the new way is fully effective? How long will isolated communities dwell in the dark ages before returning to the mainstream of human conciousness?

Just playing devil's advocate here.

I agree that there is very little that some part of humanity will not overcome, but when looking at the larger picture it's like seeing a patient limp along after a lobotomy.

NMS

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Planet contains a finite volume in apparent flat space-time.
There fore any amount of oil it contains is also finite.
With constant use it will run out. period.
With the Reality of accelerating use it will run out even faster than some informed intelligent people are predicting.

Petroleum is used in plastics and the chemical industries. That include the fertilizer and pesticides that are a significant part of the ability of our farmers to grow abundant crops. without it the price of FOOD will go up

The cheap cost of oil makes it possible to ship those bargain priced cumquats from Cumquatatainia. The economic advantage of trade is only realizable with cheap transportation. The price of EVERYTHING will go up

Ideally, since energy is ubiquitous and comes in many available forms we should probably try to save petroleum for chem/plastics uses instead of as brain-dead fuel. Can you say 'Be frugal'? no, i didn't think so.

Collectively people are lazy in brain and body. Individually we are all this way to some extent periodically. Even intelligent people are intimidated from stating simple obvious truthful projections about the future by political idiots, religious idiots, greed blinded business entities, but mostly by all of us who don't want to listen to the facts when they are ugly & brutally unpleasant.

Predictable scenario:

We gradually run out of oil.
Economies and politics become spastic.
Economies wobble then crash, those most dependant on flush oil use crash the hardest.
It gets quite ugly. Crime abounds and social values are abandoned/ignored.
Revolutions and wars abound because both are easily sold to miserable populations.
Everyone bitches 'Why didn't someone tell us?', but are too brain dead to conceive the answer 'Because you didn't want to hear it and would have denied it anyway'.
We start crash programs for new techs.
In the meantime we start burning coal deposits.
This creates smoke filled cities.
People become sick more often.
The world economy becomes sluggish.
Humanity becomes mired in self-doubt and hopelessness.
The few extremely driven/desperately hungry people find a way into space.
In a passion play struggle they gradually eek a way to survive and make a life for themselves in space.
Methods of living in space are acquired and improved.
Life in space gets better.
Life on the planet get worse.
The hopeless 10s of billions (hope it doesn't get to a 100 bilion) look up with longing & desperate hope of escaping this planet and its problems.

*footnote* this will happen at the same time we are consuming the world's ocean fish supply to extinction.
Also as we are chopping down rainforests in Africa & South America, chopping down temperate forests everywhere else.
Also happening as the human population continues to swell.
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Originally posted by NothingMakesSense
biodeisel (or any other method of powering cars by plant matter) is not the solution. In order to power our current needs, we would have to convert every square inch of the US and then some to solely producing whatever plant was chosen. Know what happens after intensive farming of the same land with the same crop year after year? It doesn't work so well.

NMS

there WILL NOT be one plant chosen, algal biodiesel...read up on it, flax, grapeseed, hemp, hydrogen, electric vehicles, mass investment in public transit, wind & solar. cellulosic alchohols, p fuels, natural gas, walking, heavy hybrids, so on & soforth...humanity will not take one standardized way towards the future to do so would be moronic. there are more than enough renewables to replace fossil fuels. but there will not be one magic bullet, anyone entering a gunfight would be a fool to use one bullet.

your absolutely correct

oil is used in EveryThing!!

but...if we can solve the "fuel for our vehicles " part of the 'oil crises

than we should be able to stop burning it so amazingly quick

that would leave plenty of oil left over to keep the other industrys alive until they can find individual replacements also

so main problem; gas in our car/truck/jet/ship

secondary problem; all the various other minor applications
(well minor in comparison to the vehicle fuel aspect)

like i said; i believe if we can solve our vehicle - issue
it should slow oil consumption down enough to give the other industrys
ample time to discover alternatives

i was redundant and repeated it , so i can say it in various ways so to make sure i wont be misunderstood

btw great topic mate

the most abundant element in the universe.

What's true for the universe isn't true for earth as much of it ran into oxygen and became our oceans.
I think that this site mentioned earlier by someone else hits the nail on the head, the best we can do is mitigate the blow. I think the most viable solution that is somewhat neglected is a fusion powered electric economy, yeah it will still use oil for plastics, production and maintenance of such a system but it would be possible to get the essentials going. The problem of couse is that electrically powered transportation is way less versitile and convinient, personal transportation(cars) will become unteneable, public transportation(trains) will be the new norm, Kudos to Europe for keeping and expanding their transportation networks. However even this depends on at least a few commertial fusion reactors being up and running by the time the crisis hits so that we can dependably make more that will produce sufficient energy.
On another note the termoil within North America will be interesting as the resources that are needed the most in a post-oil economy will be available in quantities only in the North West(Washington and B.C. and Alberta primarily). We have some available farmland, tar sands, lots of fresh water and cheap electrical power(thanks to water flowing). Would there be internal conflict as these provinces or states are forced to turn away empoverished masses, would they cede themselves from their original countries?