This is a very well-written but basically fraudulent summary that only summarizes approximately half of the real story. In point of fact, the end of the oil ecology may actually save the human race from extinction.

The irrefutable fallacy in this argument is the idea that oil is the irreplaceable energy source in the global economy. Oil is merely one mechanism for the transfer of energy. Combinations of nuclear, solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric resources (including rivers and tidal estuaries) can provide all of the energy we need in perpetuity, without the heinous effects of the use of hydrocarbon fuels. (If all else failed, electricity could be used to generate hydrocarbon fuels through well-known processes.)

With sufficient electrical energy — and we have access to sufficient electrical energy if we choose to use it — we can completely replace oil with other motive forces that are both non-polluting and infinitely renewable.

We now have electric vehicles that can match the performance of formula one race cars, and pull as much weight as the heaviest trucks. We already have electric locomotives that can pull the same weight as coal or oil burning locomotives. We have electric aircraft now flying above our heads….and fleets of ships that are driven by electrical energy.

In short, there is no form of transportation the need for which cannot be supplied without resorting to hydrocarbon products.

Any chemical engineer (as I was originally trained to be) could sit down and sketch out an entire economy in which oil would be completely unnecessary.

One of the keys to the use of electrical energy to replace oil products is to find ways to store electrical energy for vehicular use. Those methods now exist, and they are not limited to chemical batteries. Highly compressed gasses can be used to generate electricity with onboard pressure driven generators. Energy can be stored in flywheels. The list is literally endless.

The false conclusion that the end of the oil glut will result in the end of civilization as we know it is just as fallacious today as it was when the Club of Rome report first veiled such prognostications with the patina of made-up science. (Example: The Club of Rome Report suggested that we would run out of oil in the 1980s. Hmmm.)

As I said at the outset of this argument, this is a well-written article that is based upon a false premise. Since the author obviously knows better than this, the anxiety-producing tenor of the article was designed to stimulate a fear reaction in the reader…for no good reason except to gain eyeballs.