Oh No! I hear you say, not another doom and gloom story.
But I'll start anyway.
The quotes are from the BBC website - links below
The subject of the price of oil has cropped up in a few other threads, but has never really been expanded on.
Its a sobering thought that and I quote " the number of major new oil fields discovered around the world fell to zero for the first time in 2003"
When the price of oil hits the roof it is not only the cost of food and heating that will be affected. "Most of the chemical and plastic trappings of life which we scarcely notice - furniture, pharmaceuticals, communications - need oil as a feedstock"
Before I read these articles I was, to my shame, in the - I'll be long gone before that ever happens - mode of thinking. Now I'm not so sure...."we shall one day be forced to learn to live without oil......people in middle age today can probably expect to be here for it.
Life in the next twenty years might get a lot tougher. Its certainly something to think about when your considering you or your childrens future.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3777413.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3623549.stm

Yes Indeed, -Could Very Well be the Case. Though at the same time, -This World as a Whole could Still have Plenty of Oil Left in the Ground.

Whether we Run Into an Energy and Resources Crunch One, 10, 100, or 1000 Years from now, -Fact is we're Running Thru some Initial, Costly, Shortaged Stages of this now!

Things like Nuclear Fusion show such Promise! Yet Remain Teasingly and Tantalyzingly, -More than a Little Out of Immeadiate Reach!

Question is, -Will it's "Ready Point" Coincide, or More Likely Lag a Good Ways Behind on!, -Those Upcoming Times when we're going to Crucially Need such New, Cheap, and Abundant Energy Sources?!

Fossil Fuels are Definitely on the Way Out! Even if Yet for Now and Awhile, -Rather Large Reserves of such yet remain in the Natural World.

That Can't just Indefinitely Keep Up! Things will eventually Start Crimping and Tightening Up! Increasingly as Time goes on.

First this can Manifest Itself in Price Rises and/or Supply Disruptions. Increasing Fossil Fuels Scarcity will then eventually Follow on the Heels of this! In the Supply of such Raw Materials Itself.

And this is all if there even Wasn't a Terrorist Etc Disruption Danger Hanging Over it! Let Alone with such Additionally Hanging Over it All, and Over Us / U.S.!

As in a Space Mission, -There is Only a Certain Window of Time, -in which Two Spacecraft can Dock and Rendevouz! It has to *So* Happen on *That* "Moon Mission"! It's a Little to a Lot Too Late!, -if we Only Get Around to that, -on "the Next Moon Mission"! This is the Parable and Analogy I so Draw here!

Our High Stakes Race, -to "Break Out into the Sunny Uplands" of Great New, Abundant Energy Sources! And *Before* the Fossil Fuels Door at Last Closes Down Behind Us / U.S.!, -This Race and that Analogy, -are Very Much Alike!

It's also Like Having Enough!, -to Pull Oneself Through a Crucial, Critical, Survival Situation!

Will we Rendevouz with New, Practical, Abundant Energy Resources in Time!? Of Which we as an Overall World and Society, -just May Not have All that Much of!, -Timewise!

Or Will we be some Years or Decades, "Too Long" on This?!

It All Goes Back to Preparing for the Worst, -Even in, and Especially in, -Times of Good or Seeming Good! As the Summer is to Later Fall and Winter! As the Daylight Hours are to the oncoming Ones of Darkness! As the "Put Out your Cans to Collect!" Sort of Rainfall is!, -in a Desert or Sea Survival Situation!,....-So Too Shud we as a World and Society, -*Have This!*, -the Matter of Finding and Developing New Natural and Energy Resources!, -as a Top Priority on our own Societal Agenda!

Nuclear Fusion and Other Great New Energy Recources are the Landfall! -Will our Current and Future Boats Make It to that Shore in Time?!? It can be a Real, High Stakes, "Make It or Break It!", -of a Difference!

Thats What I'm Getting At here! And Thats What I'm Asking!

As of Now and Today's Current Higher Oil and Gasoline Prices, -This could be "just" a rather Early, Beginning Stage, of Such.

Along with Battling Diseases, Dealing With the Present and Upcoming World Water Crisis, Ecology and Environment, Resource Availability, and Other Such, -All "Not in a Shy Way!", -We've Got to Really Look to Where our Very Energy and Power, -Will be Coming From!

Let's Try to Get Things like Nuclear Fusion Safely in the Bag!, -and In Time!

Wisely Manage and Stretch Fossil Fuels Now, -It may be a Wowl Yet before we're Running on Fumes! But Really R & D the New Stuff!, -in the Meantime!

Mayswell Go All Out!, on the R & D. Because How Often in Man's Affairs has Even All Out Efforts Got us in just Under the Wire! Doddling Around Just Wouldn't Have Cut It! We Can't Afford to Doddle or Play Around! It's a Reasonable Contingency that we as a Society have Got top Certainly Plan and Prepare For!

Lets Keep a Real Cutting Edge, State Of the Art, R & D Eye Off Towards Nuclear Fusion and the Like!

While Wisely Managing and Maintaining What Petroleum and Other Fossil Fuels as we Yet Have! (Which May Still be Yey Rather Plentiful, -At Least as of the Moment).

Fossil Fuels are Very Much All we've Got! For Now and Perhaps a While! Use Em Wisely! / They're NOT Gonna Last Indefinitely or Forever!

Nuclear Fusion and Other "New Stuff" Aren't Here Yet!

We Cannot Afford to Stretch the Moment of it's Arrival Out, by Dawdling!

So DO the Vital R & D (Research and Development) *Toward* Such Now! Again in No Doddling, Shy Way!

In a Larger Sense, -This Means Saying an Unadulterated "Yes!". -To Things like the Supercollider of the Early 90s! Not the Unduly Cautious No as had Actually Happened.

For the Rich Fruits of Things like Nuclear Fusion, -and Other Such we Can't even Picture or Conceive of now!, -Are Only Going to Follow and Flow From!, -the Trailblazing Pure Science Investments of Today!

This is What I Mean by, -We Must Keep Up our Sci-Tech Lead! And What I've said Elsewhere about How Space is Such a Vital Investment! Only This is the Same Such, in a Non Space Way!

We've Got to Cast and Cut to the Long View here! And Get Out from Behind!, -the Energy and Resources Curve!

*This!*, -is What we Cannot Afford!, -Not to Do!

So Forget All the Michael Jackson Silly Stuff and the Like! On This and Other Really and Crucially Important Things as I Mention, -These are Where our Societal Emphasis and Focus Should Be! We Don't Have Room for Superfluous Silly Stuff Besides!

Things like Space, Disease Detectiving, Hubble Type Telescopes, Nuclear Fusion, and the SSC!, -*Are* the Vital Up Front!, -if Often Costly in Themselves, -of Investments!

But Vital Investments in our Survival and Tomorrow!, All the Same! And by Definition, -Should be Initially Made! And Within the Time Slot Windows as Well!

Not All Investments Pay Off, -But the Only Ones which Pay Off, -are Those Initially Made! This Tree will Not Bear Fruit, -If it's Seed is Never even Planted in the Ground!

So Not Only Ardently Research Nuclear Fusion and it's Like Per Se! But Also Cut to the Longer View, -and Ardently Jump Right Into the "Pure Science Pool"! That Too Will Come to Only Bear Such Abundant Fruit!

And One of These Days, -Sooner or Later, -We're Gonna be Needing that Fruit! When Such Time Comes, -We're Gonna be Glad we Planted that Tree! Thats if Indeed we *Do* Now Ahead of Time, -*Plant That Tree!" [color:"black"] [/color] [email]joblot[/email]