Perhaps you will be an old man, but I will be middle-aged when worldwide shortages begin to occur. Do you realize that an actual shortage has not occurred yet. Previous oil crises were political. An actual shortage will not end, but just get worse.

In Canada we would have to reduce our *electrical* consumption by 40% on average (in some provinces by 100%) to have a renewable system. Transportation is TOTALLY non-renewable. You can't change 100 years of petroleum-fuelled development in 5-10 years. It could amount to an environmental catastrophe, maybe even bring on a mass-extinction.

The oil consumption in Africa exceeds 10 percent of North American oil consumption, but they are still dirt-poor. How much oil would be enough to support our way of life?