I’m not sure what I think about the whole Peak Oil issue, but Georgetown political scientist Patrick Deneen has thought a lot about it and has a – “sobering” is too mild a word; “apocalyptic” maybe? – post up about the relationship between oil and food and the implications that might have for world population.
"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal
2 responses to “We’re doomed”
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Some years ago, I heard a radio interview with an organic farmer who urged his granola brethren to support genetic crop engineering because it’s the only way to get a high enough yield to feed everyone without destroying the environment. I am agnostic on genetic engineering (of plants) but if Deneen is right then this is even more bound to be true.
In my job I’ve done some reporting on alternative energy, and it’s definitely my impression that while there are a lot of renewable options for electricity and home climate control (solar, wind, hydroelectric, roof ponds, etc.), this is a lot less true of transportation. It makes me wonder if, contrary to sci-fi visions of the future involving ever-further travel (like to other planets), the future may see us advancing technologically but more constrained in terms of actual movement. This would have a huge impact, not just because of the movement of people but the movement of goods in international trade and outsourcing and so on. Somebody should write a novel, if they haven’t already…
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Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun tetralogy seems to imagine a future where some high technology exists, but travel and day-to-day life has been reduced to something more like pre-industrial levels. I don’t remember if resource depletion is ever invoked as the reason or not…
A Thinking Reed 
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