Planning for peak oil - what it will mean

The former US secretary James Schlesinger said last year that there was no longer a debate on whether or not the peak oil concept was arguable and that we will face great difficulty in dealing with it. The IEA predicts that the first supply crunch will happen within five years, so we need to act quickly.

The Hirsch report states:

Without massive mitigation more than a decade before the fact, the problem will be pervasive and will not be temporary. Previous energy transitions (wood to coal and coal to oil) were gradual and evolutionary; oil peaking will be abrupt and revolutionary.

It is highly likely that we do not have the decade for preparation the Hirsch report recommends.

At a meeting I attended 12 years ago I was told that the substitution of energy for labour will no longer be viable when peak oil begins impacting, that a global economy will not be viable and that economic growth will end. Delaying action will exacerbate the problem as the tax revenue will begin to decrease as peak oil takes its hold.