I'm old, 55 years now. When I was in school, I recall a consversation in one class, where the teacher announced that the oceans were so large that pollution would never be a problem, and where there was enough oil we should not concern ourselves for generations.
Wow, it just shows where complacency and arrogence got us today. The lesson? We are using up the natural resources. And much quicker than expected. So the days when all the easily accessable oil reserves are depleted will come quicker than expected, and it is coming.
The trouble is, the oil companies are so firmly entrenched, and have so much money to spend on politicians, little is done. And don't expect the oil companies to come up with a magic solution.
But implimenting alternative energy solutions is difficult compared to oil. The present oil distribution itself is a multi-billion dollar industry, from the oil tankers to the refineries, to the individual gas stations. It's a pretty impressive piece of infrastructure.
Pesssimistically, I expect a crash before a solution. It's sad, because the technology is almost here, all we lack is the political will. Solar power, wind, nuclear, many more are feasable alternatives. I personally have a great interest in the ITER fusion project being constructed in southern France. Imagine, we're constructing what will be the first true fusion plant.
http://www.iter.org/
But the bottom line is that we have a finite amount of oil, and we are using it quicker than planned.
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