As far as peak oil goes, there have been many who claimed modern day society could not function without crude oil. They say that oil is too central in too many modern inventions and innovations for us to survive without it. Oil is used to make plastics, fuel, lubricant. There is a long list of items and goods we depend upon as daily necessities that are produced from an oil base. Some of which would be difficult to replace were oil ever to be priced outside of our budgets.
Only 15% of oil is used for non-energy purposes. So it's not like dramatic reduction of oil production will affect chemical industry proportionately.
Using fossil fuels for energy is not sustainable in the long run. Not only because of the global warming, but simply because at the current rate we will run out of them in a few centuries and the who civilization will collapse.
I'm actually very surprised that we haven't seen venture funding thrown at stirling engines, gravity batteries, thorium based nuclear reactors, fusion energy and our usual suspects of alt energy start ups. Is it possible that credit and liquidity have dried up to such an extent that people are no longer throwing random cash at start ups. The silence here is deafening.
Some of these projects, like nuclear fusion, are too expensive for venture investors.
