Life After the Oil Crash

Thanks to Jonty for this one; a terrifying vision of the future, without oil! Just like OPEC 1973. The fact is we're going to hit Peak Oil (the point where oil becomes progressively harder and hence more expensive to extract) pretty soon. At that point, everything becomes more expensive; water, transport, everything; and as so many resources and services are interlinked (take the example of the UK's dependence on natural gas), the failure of one drives up the demand for and price of all, beyond the point at which the economy (and especiallly the markets) can sustain change.

(Cor that was po-faced.)

Matthew Simmons, Energy Advisor to George W. Bush: "It is past time. As I have said, the experts and politicians have no Plan B to fall back on. If energy peaks, particularly while 5 of the world’s 6.5 billion people have little or no use of modern energy, it will be a tremendous jolt to our economic well-being and to our health — greater than anyone could ever imagine...
I don’t think there is (a solution). The solution is to pray. Under the best of circumstances, if all prayers are answered there will be no crisis for maybe two years. After that it’s a certainty."

This also seems to back it up, with the confused incentives that the oil market has proving key.