It should come as no great shock, to those that really think about it, that we don’t have much time left with oil as a primary energy source. It’s been speculated that at current consumption rates the world has approximately 40 -50 years of oil left, and that for every four barrels of oil we consume only one is being discovered. Clearly this is unsustainable. I’m ecstatic that I will hopefully witness (if only just) the end of the world’s addiction to oil in my lifetime.
However, civilization will obviously go through a period of detoxification, just like any junkie in a rehab center. There are people already starting to implement projects to try and help mitigate the widespread effects that the loss of oil will create, assuming we don’t find a similar energy source to replace it. One such man is Rob Hopkins. You can listen to what he’s doing here (again, this from TED): http://www.ted.com/talks/rob_hopkins_transition_to_a_world_without_oil.html