The problem with Peak Oil is that we won't know we've hit it until it's past. Looking at the current forecasts for crude oil, we may have hit that point about two or three months ago. For the uninitiated, Peak Oil refers to the point in which we (humans) will have extracted half of all the available crude oil in the world. At some point, there will a peak in production, as demands rise, and then a plateau and falloff as wells run dry and new sources are not discovered, or not shown to be as productive as the fields running dry. Add to this peak the "yogurt scenario": scooping out the first half of a yogurt container is easy, but scraping the bottom to dig out the last half requires much more effort. Russia's supplies have already hit a plateau. Oil is going to be much harder to extract once we deplete the high-producing sites.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the International Energy Agency (IEA), the most-widely recognized independent source of energy data and forecasts, has already said that by 2015, the world will see a shortfall of over 12.5 million barrels of oil per day unless demand plummets. The continuing war in Iraq and sanctions on Iran (not to mention questioning the patriotism of anyone who suggests sitting down at the negotiating table with the Iranians) are confounding efforts to develop those countries' resources. Future worries and rampant speculation have driven up the price of crude oil to over $135 per barrel, and the outlook is suggesting it may reach $200 before the end of the year.  Recent price jumps in the U.S. are considered to be only the harbingers of much larger increases, with gas prices expected to reach $5 and possibly even $6 or $7 per gallon in the next six months.

The effect of soaring oil prices is already causing a cascade effect on the prices of plastics, petrochemicals (including fertilizer), and food. As we discussed previously, food is already a concern, as crops are failing due to weather and natural disasters, and many corn crops are being devoted to ethanol fuel production. The food math is simple: the food required to fill an SUV's tank once would feed a person for a year. Pinning our fuel hopes on ethanol will only lead to faster catastrophe.

Coal, nuclear power and natural gas make up the majority of the sources for electrical power in the U.S. but each has its problems. Much of the nation's coal supply is sulfurous, and burning it without expensive scrubbers leads to the conditions that produce acid rain. Nuclear power has come a long way since the days of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl (events that probably predate the births of many of our readers) but even the best-maintained facility leads to radioactive waste which must be contained safely for centuries. Non-nuclear nations may be jumping at the chance to construct reactors of their own, but nuclear power is tightly controlled by nations who already have it. Natural gas, like coal and oil, is a limited resource.

The lights will stay on, at least for now. Don't plan long road trips, though.

We at Firefox News have looked at the renewable energy resources such as solar, wind, hydroelectric and geothermal energy, and while we find them worthy of use on a wider scale, we propose our own view of renewable energy that will help keep industry running, cars on the road, and the world going on: zombies.

A zombie on a treadmill, provided with a small amount of brains in a jar kept just out of reach, can provide enough energy for a single-family home. Should that family swap their SUV for an electric car or equip their vehicle with a do-it-yourself hybrid