I just started reading "Peak Everything" an excellent book about our possible future (or lack thereof).
To help a person understand the amount of energy in a gallon of gasoline the book suggests this exercise: try pushing your car a few feet. Now imagine the energy it would take to push your car about 20 miles (or the distance your car travels on a gallon of gas). That gallon of gas contains an amazing amount of energy.
Let's take things a bit further. Think of a 380 ton dump truck at a mine, imagine pushing it. Not likely. Without oil, all of our mines will become a tiny fraction as productive as they are now. People who think nuclear power will save us consider uranium must be mined and at present rates uranium will run out in about 10 years.
Any non-violent transition to an oil-independent future will require a huge amount of: energy. Windmills, solar panels, hydro-electric dams, wave-energy gizmos, geothermal: building them all on a large scale will require massive amounts of energy, metals and materials.
If we are smart we will build them now while we still have access to relatively cheap and amazingly-full-of-energy oil. If we wait until oil becomes scarce and expensive what to you think will happen?
