Steven Meyer,

Yes, "peak oil" is really a variable not a fixed point, it's a product of technology as well as supply and demand, in practical terms oil reserves will never be zero.

Hasbeen,

You're right of course, human ingenuity always has a downside for wildlife....but my point was the sheer degradation and toxicity associated with oil sands mining. The land earmarked for this is around the size of England - and already the Athabasca Tar Sands is the single most polluting industrial site on the planet. That's the future for an oil dependent species.

So much for innovation, if that's the best we can do.

(I note that Obama failed to okay the Keystone Pipeline from Canada into the U.S. which would have delivered oil from Alberta to Americans - and that decision was in response to the controversy surrounding environmental damage caused by oi sands mining in Canada)

Thank you Steven for an interesting analysis. As always it is the interpretation that people place on events that is revealing. Many responses reflect a typical knee jerk reaction: if one is critical of the US ipso facto one must be anti-American. That is simply tiresome and not worth a response.
Others appear to take comfort in an interpretation of history that suits their current prejudices but bears little relationship to historical fact. That the Americans "saved" Australia by coming to our aid in 1941/42 is a favoured meme. As you pointed out, following Talleyrand, nations have neither friends nor enemies, only interests. What the Americans did following Pearl Harbour (which incidentally they engineered - see Stinnett) was decidedly in their interests.
But even if the view of history is one of America coming to the rescue like some latter day cavalry charge against those pesky redskins who resented their land being stolen from them were true, is one supposed to excuse the post-war history of US imperialism because of that? Many of the commenters seem to think so. That is either ignorance, wilful blindness or denial.
I agree that top US universities attract the best and brightest from all around the world, but what one needs to note is that more than half of Ph.d candidates in the US are foreign students, the bulk from Asian countries including China. After graduation they return to their own countries to use that knowledge in their own countries' interests, which are not necessarily the same as the US interest.
One should also be mindful of the fact that US global hegemony owes a great deal to the US$ being the world's sole reserve currency. When that ceases, as it inevitably will sooner rather than later, the US empire will crumble as all empires before it have crumbled. I only hope that Australia is prepared for that eventuality.

Every Empire, since the dawn of time, has come and gone.
Every Empire since the dawn of time has sown the seeds of its own destruction.
America has no need to look elsewhere for those problems that could destroy it, it only needs look in its own backyard.
It only needs to look at the extreme capitalism that now defines the land of the free.
It only needs to look at the failed war on drugs, vastly over populated prisons, no go lawless ghettos; or, where the only place the disadvantaged get real justice, is in TV soap operas?
In the real world the rich and privileged still get to "TRUMP" or screw over, the most disadvantaged?
Why, real wages for the least advantaged, haven't moved in real terms, for thirty years.
White supremacy, inequality and Tea party type conservatism, still guides much of the current social outcomes; and division, that so marks the "social hatred" and or fear, that still divides/defines America.
This and the demand for a hugely unfair, unequal share of the world's resources, simply builds and builds international resentment.
Yes America did save our WW11 bacon at considerable blood sacrifice. However, America was a very different, much more fair-minded place back then.
The premeditated attack on Pearl Harbour, might not have been a complete surprise and was suggested by some analysts, on the grounds, this is what they would do, if positions were reversed?
America needs to rediscover its humanity and re-implement its bill of rights.
It needs to invest in re-energising its economy, with self sufficient, much lower cost alternative energy, even if that then means, embracing DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM.
Sure America is in some sort of decline, but thus far, it remains the land of innovation and technical superiority.
It may well survive as a still powerful entity, with a formidable sting in its tail, through the rise and rise of China; and, that nation's eventual decline, caused yet again, as for so many past tyrannous expansionist empires, by internal dissent and problems associated with the annexing of just too many alienated/disenfranchised minorities?
Rhrosty.

James, if the U.S. Empire crumbles, the world will be filled with sobbing, breast-beating American apologists who will resemble the flat-Earthers of long ago when they found out the world wasn't flat at all.

It's amazing to me how easily people, especially Australian people, are taken in by the lies and duplicity of the U.S. as it goes about trying to gain military control of the world for its own benefit.

Of course if the demise of America corresponds with the realization that there is no God and that all religion is based upon a lie, the tears shed will create a flood of biblical proportions!

I might start to build an Ark tomorrow!

http://dangerouscreation.com

"FYI. US oil consumption seems to have peaked around 2005".
I have been studying peak oil for years so I already know that it had peaked in 2005.

"We were wrong on peak oil. There's enough to fry us all"
Sorry but that is oil company hype and it is a uneconomic supply that will fizzle.

"Contrary to what most people believe, oil supply capacity is growing worldwide at such an unprecedented level that it might outpace consumption. This could lead to a glut of overproduction and a steep dip in oil prices"
Really this is the ultimate denial and would be humorous if it was not so serious.

"Tough new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations mean that US vehicle manufacturers will have to double the fuel efficiency of their vehicles by 2025"
There will be no US car manufacturing by 2025.

Rhrosty: I am in complete agreement with you.

David G: I have had my ark (lifeboat) built for some time.