Originally Posted By: addyguy
Excdept with how large and spead-out modern society is, horse and buggy would NOT work.
When the world runs out of readily-accesible oil, you will start to see a massive drop in world population, due to starvation.
You cannot produce and transport the amount of food needed to feed the world today without petroleum power....you simply can't.
If that is the case, then you would agree that chasing the "green energy" panacea is a huge waste of time and material?
This is a highly simplistic view of how the world works and shows a lack of understand of markets. Just a few decades ago, "experts" were claiming that the max population of the world was 2 billion and there would be starvations, higher prices for commodities, blah, blah...just as you predict. Obviously, they were wrong.
If the market is allowed to work, and fossil fuels actually begin to run out, then they will become more expensive and other alternatives will become more affordable and replace them. This is the history of mankind, when allowed by their overseers.
And remember, the supply of oil is largely dictated by the arbitrary actions of a few in governments, not the individual people that makeup the market.
Natural gas prices have plunged as of late due to new drilling techniques, which has greatly increased supply of a purportedly finite resources. The lesson of the story:
Drill baby drill works!