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That being said, I think it only prolongs the inevitable... we have to run out of resources. I think our end will be due to a virus, not an oil shortage.

Fletch, read the web site (at least the first page - long - linked again below). You're missing the point somewhat. It's not "running out of oil" or resources that is the problem, so much the decline of the availability of those resources after the peak is reached. The "peak" is the halfway point on a curve of total oil production from day one to the last drop. As that peak both arrives and is recognized as being the peak, production will start to drop off annually, even as both world population and individual personal demand increase. So, there will be ever less oil, and ever increasing demand. It's not that there won't be oil (for the next 50 years or so), but that it will be DAILY more expensive. Once we know that we are past the peak of the curve, every drop of oil used will make the remainder more expensive (why wouldn't it?) In addition to the scarcity issues, as stocks are depleted in oilfields, it becomes ever more difficult (and, therefore, more expensive) to extract the stuff from the ground.

The web site goes on to explain why alternative power resources CAN'T possibly meet demand and that using them will create other serious problems, like famines and global warming. Either that or the power they produce will be even more expensive than the oil. Basically, the conclusion is that we've blown it by not preparing sooner and that a change away from civilisation as we know it is inevitable (in our lifetime). It's too late to make the switch painlessly. Apparently, some "experts" have been having a hard time accepting that they can't bet on both red and black and not expect to lose in the long run.

It's important. Read it and try to prepare yourself. As the people on there say though (although you wouldn't know it from all the "survival" gear ads), preparation should be a attitudinal process, not a "hoard stuff" one.

For example, I don't think "casino worker" will be a job title anyone should rely on from now on. We need to learn how to grow food and make useful things. That's right, you heard correctly, you're going to have to do something useful for a living.

So, bottom line: Life won't come to an end; billions of lifestyles will be knocked back about 200 years. Yee-ha, we're all going Amish now!

A bit over the top, dontcha think chicken little?? Of course eventually the oil supply will run out, but I think that it will be a couple hundred years.

A bit off the top of your uninformed head, doncha think Mr Nay Sayer? Where do you get "a couple of hundred years" from? Does it make you feel safe to just write scenarios that sound sufficiently far off in the future as to not really affect you? Read every page and link in that web site I pointed you to. If the experts are wrong, say why they are wrong.

Peak Oil may not be equated with the sky falling. The sky never needs to fall. Experts across all the pertinent fields don't agree that the sky is about to fall or must fall one day. Oil, being a finite, non-renewable resource MUST achieve a production peak at some point. Many experts say that that peak is about to occur, if it hasn't already occured (it should take a few years to realize that it has, after it does). As soon as it does, production (supply) will be ever decreasing, even as demand is ever increasing. When demand outweighs supply of any commodity, especially in the case of inelastic commodities like oil, prices rise. As the gap between supply and demand grows, as production continues to fall off, prices will continue to rise. That gap will be the more rapidly expanded by increased oil use brought about by the ensuing oil wars.

How much does gas have to cost before you can't "afford" it (bearing in mind that the average family of four consumes as much gasoline in the production of its food as it does in powering its cars)? How much does it have to cost before 10 million people who earn less than you can't afford it? Do you suppose the US Auto industry can survive such a drop off in sales as that would cause? Does the fact that 1 in 10 American jobs rely on the US Auto industry make you feel that such a drop off in car sales could destroy the economy? Should any of that affect the casino industry?

All that is now. It's not pie in the sky scaremongering. Getting scared isn't going to help you or save you. However, neither is hiding your head in the sand. It's time to get eduated and to watch the signs of the times. If it all began to go rapidly south tomorrow, what skills could you bring to the "post-industrial stone-age"?

And did you really think the US was in Iraq to liberate Iraqis?