from email, added 19 February 2008: A pretty pessimistic analysis of peak oil, peak coal, peak food, peak everything. Head for the hills!

by Peter Goodchild: The planet Earth is running out of oil, without which almost nothing in modern civilization can function. A number of scientists and engineers have pointed out that the world's oil production will peak early in the twenty-first century; it has probably already done so. At the beginning of the century, the human race was using about thirty billion barrels of oil per year. By 2030, production will be down to about half of that level. In the entire world, there are perhaps a trillion barrels of oil left to extract - which may sound like a lot, but isn't.  more