I kind of agree. In the near term future, our lives specifically may be very much changed. If we suddenly had absolutley no petroleum products tomorrow, then our lives would change drastically. I'd be OK for a while. But many, including myself, would need to make some longterm changes to how I live, or I would not live. Many of us would not be able to make those changes, and because of that many would perish. But some would be able to make those changes. Some people would survive. There are areas in which most of the people still live a subsistence lifestyle, without a lot of dependence on petroleum. Provided enough can survive to maintain a population that can reproduce, the human race should still be here.
See, that's the problem: we always imagine a global crisis by way of Hollywood: The Day the Meteor Hit, or Banks Collapsed, or Oil Ran Out. Real life isn't like that. If oil starts runnig low, you won't suddenly find yourself in a post-industrial utopia. On the contrary, the governments in place will see a threat to their existence and respond with even
more production, even
more war, even
more control over the population. Do not expect die-offs before kill-offs.
And you know what's the scariest part? The proverbial Big Brother state may very well pull through. Genetic engineering, currently restricted by ignorant technophobias, will explode all over the world if existential threats appear on the horizon. The possibilities for implementation at hand are staggering
even now, think what they will look like by 2012. Now add incentive and presto: new energy, new power, new technologies and a new, very different, way of life.
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