If you want some info about the Canadian tar sands industry in Alberta - just google it. George Monbiot wrote a few critical articles before Copenhagen - sounds a very dirty energy absorbing industry

Just posting some links...it seems that Canada has gone right off the environmental rails...

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?263149

http://peopleandplanet.org/tarsands/localimpacts

In my earlier post I talked of agriculture. That's the KEY issue. Never mind about the suburbs. That can get fixed eventually when the price rises high enough to force the issue.

Agriculture absolutely depends on a supply of diesel. Without it we do not grow food. How important is that? And think further, even if we succeed in generating a "bio"diesel from say algae ( brine ponds or bioreactors - both underway) we still require supplies of fertilisers and all the chemicals that go into producing crops.

And if you thought that was not enough of challenge for Gillard/Abbott then think on. If we had our heads screwed back on, this country could be THE leader in innovation here. Its about resilience more than survival. We have a reputation in dry land farming, we teach others how to do it. Think wider, go wider.

I agree with Renew, agriculture is the big problem with oil depletion.
It can be temporally fixed with rationing.
It reminds me of an article I read.
A farmer with a tractor and a multifurrow disc plough might plough 300 acres in a day.
A farmer with a draft horse and single furrow plough might plough 2 acres in a day,
remember he has to rest the horse frequently.
That ratio gives you the idea that we might need 150 times the number of farmers we have now.

So either starve when unemployed or be a farm labourer.
Some suggest that this will bring back serfdom.
Large landholders will have tennant farmers on their divided up land
and the tennants will hire day labour.

Oh well, I guess we will all be a lot fitter.