Peak Oil and Population reduction

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Mankind will have to balance itself, either a huge discovery that leads to a revolution or a world war (space war, rather). It is bound to happen.

There was no alternative to coil, then oil was found to work.

Maybe it can reassure you a little, USA as already been through a time where it had to use less oil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EIA_petroleum_consumption_of_selected_nations_1960-2005.png

The oil won't disappear sudenly, it will slowly be less available. With a little luck we will be able to adapt. Then again seen how stupid humans are.

I think there are some solutions. We certainly could switch from a ridiculously over-bloated reliance on automobiles to a massive expansion of mag lev lines, with extreme high speed linking the cities and less-speedy but economical lines replacing major thoroughfares. It could even be suspended above the streets, allowing a large space to go on foot as well as bicycling, which is an ideal form of transport in a city anyways. I can imagine such a system would probably cost a lot to implement initially, but recycled materials (such as from the huge automobile fleet) could certainly keep costs down.
If we weren't using oil for fuel anymore, the crunch will probably feel a lot less tight, and most of the oil would go to manufacturing plastics and other petroleum-related materials.
I suspect geothermal energy will become much more popular. The industry is slowly rising in many parts of the world. There are a lot of interesting solutions. And in any case, as I have quoted in my signature from Thomas Hobbes, on 'Final War'

I know this is Heresy but economic growth and the increased consumption
that comes along with it may be bad things.
the answer to me seems to be Use Less.

I live on $200 a month (I make more but I don't spend it.
well I give most of it to my ex-wife).
I don't have receive any govenment aid.

the answer to peak oil is don't buy crap you don't need.

-Jake

I guess stop buying stop and hope they stop making it.

-Jake

i made a big post about this a while back.

When peak oil hits the world population will drop significantly. This is likely to happen within 50 years time.

Thing is many people think 'peak oil' means there will be no more oil left in the planet. Thats not it. Peak oil is when the oil production cannot keep being increased to keep up with the rising demands in the world. When that happens the prices of the steadily declining oil supply will skyrocket and that makes every single industry and aspect of life in the world become more and more expensive... but primarily it will be the food supply that suffers.

Food may still be grown in sufficient numbers but the oil to transport it will make their price go up.. making the bulk of the world's population.. those who are poor... suffer and die from starvation... plus the rioting and revolts it will cause.

eventually the oil used to make fertilizers and run farm eqp. will become too expensive to use as well and food production will drop. That's when even the people and countries that are well off will lose their food security and militaries will be used to secure supply for their own nations... world population would probably drop to 2 billion within a year or two.

Futurist and singulatarian Ray Kurtzweil recently told PBS' Lauren Feeney that we don't need to worry about peak oil or carbon emissions. That's a relief. He's applied his "law of accelerating returns," developed to describe the way consumer electronics improve exponentially, to the field of solar power. Kurtzweil tells Feeney: