We will definitely need the oil and all the byproducts of oil to create machinery ...for a while to come yet...
Critical resource for now.
I know that our best have created plant based plastics...and such inventive innovations....
and we most certainly will need to turn to these alt.'s

And yes oil is produced as a natural process...
But hardly fast enough for our consumptive need as a species reliant on it.
We have been extracting oil reserves for more than 100 years now...and those reserves are going fast...
Those original reserves in fact ... took a very long time to produce...
reserves which in fact were the result of eco "die-offs" ...
We have been mortgaging our future for quite some time now.

as far as standards of living go...
and everyone on this planet wanting more....

As far as western standards of living go...
5 years ago the stats were in.
for the planet to continually provide ...sustain-ably ...the resources demanded...and continually supply ...at no detrimental cost...at no loss of resource or to eco system ...
the cold fact is this.

For an Island the size of Vancouver Island.
To produce and regenerate the resources needed at a western standard of living ...
without causing inevitable and irreversible damage and eco and resource collapse...

Out of the more than 500 000 people living here...

ALL of them but 1 must die.

Only one person should be here ...
at Western standards of living...
for it to be sustainable .
It may be a few more people at less than Western Standard of living ...
perhaps a few hundred if handled properly ...
But those are the cold hard facts.

Since the data relies on the size of the geography and the resource base it contains ...it is a given.

People wonder why the old calendar-ical clocks all run out the last few years.
It is less the fact that the mathematical calculations based on celestial body movement ..naturally ...inevitably ..."goes out" and cannot be further predicted so much in advance....
If that were the case ...
knowing that inevitable ..
it is given that such minds who could conceive of the calendars "going out" of sync. would accommodate for that.
It has been done before with many calendars.
So why not with the important big ones?

It's because..
of the expectation...
from extrapolating on their data...
The expectation was ...
thousands of years ago...
by multiple cultures ...
all of whom came to the conclusion ...
separated continental-ly ...isolated from one another..

that in our here and now...
we wouldn't make it any further.
Something would give..environmentally...ecologically ..

We are past running on fumes.
Our due date...
Our expiry date has come and gone...
and it is a marvel ...really...
that we have just been keeping one step ahead of our own extinction.

It is simple really.

What is the number of "Earth's" is it we are up to now?
The number of Earth like planets needed to sustain us at our consumptive level?
Is it still only 3 Earths needed?

Every year the tally is done....and every year it is earlier and earlier...that we reach the limit on our yearly consumption of resources...not when the year ends...either...
Have we reached this years consumption yet?
Or has it already come and gone?
If not ...it must be a few more days and then we will have reached our consumption of what the planet can produce for the year...
and devoured it ...prematurely...and demanded yet more from this place...

We don't have a lot of time left before irreversible regional eco collapses become the norm ...now

The greeks weren't the only ones who were able to calculate the earth's landmass (they were only out by about a 100 000 hectares) ...

And it takes little watching a village for a few generations....
watching how many are born...how many die...
how long people live...
innovations in technology...
innovations in medicine...
improving and prolonging life...
it doesn't take a lot to see how much impact there is on localized resources ...
and extrapolate from that ...
and make a good rough guesstimate...
on how long we have on the graph curve.

How long we have...
before ...
..." ..... " .....

We either come up with new un thought of possible methods ...and implement them...to stave off our past due ..extinction.
With our sciences reverse the negative impact we have done..around us...
Or
face the Great Restaurant Bill (we cannot possibly pay) at the end of the night.

It all may sound grim, negative, doom-saying stuff.
But it really isn't coming from that kind of place.

Frankly I am a Canadian...
and that means I am a realistic-pragmatist.
here...only the foolish do not have some provisions and supplies to weather the cold ...stored for when there are power failures lasting hours , days, weeks...from storms ...
we have always looked out our windows on warm sunny summer days here...
and before heading out the door grab the umbrella, rain gear, and snowsuit (just in case)
In our cars we pack emergency gear, blankets, all that could possibly be needed for ..."just in case...whatever ...happens.."

Our environment here has always made us adopt the philosophy of "fear for the worst , hope for the best , and making sure we are freakin' prepared... in advance ...for either ...'

I suggest if humanity cannot get it's collective crap together and work together ..and deal with issues that already HAVE viable solutions
It's just implementing them
...feeding the hungry...housing the homeless...making sure people are clothed...educated...medically cared for...and have meaningful work available ..and time to enjoy recreational activities...
and all that being very easily met without destroying the planet in the doing...
If those who have too much cannot share...
If we cannot do such a simple thing...
to safeguard the species..from extinction..
then we are far more stupid than any species that ever existed.
and deserve not "Homo Sapiens" as a title..
But rather "Homo Stultus" ...
or worse..