I am shocked and horrified by the events unfolding in the gulf.

I belong to a society dependent on oil for many different uses.
I like my lifestyle, I enjoy towing my boat to the lake, with my petroleum powered truck.

I am also a lover of the outdoors, nature, and the wide variety of life that makes our planet so wonderful.

The combination of events, politics, weather, bad luck, are forming what might be the perfect storm of environmental disaster.
The political timing included.

What are some thoughts on what is likely to happen here.
How much might this affect our near future?

yeah but society, as Wayne points out, is thoroughly hooked on oil. Not only for transport - plastics, pharmaceuticals, and a million other things are derived from oil.

Think about this - oil is liquid sunshine. It took billions of years for that energy to be stored and stowed away. We have burned half of it in a few generations. I researched peak oil theory last year and it is a seriously frightening subject.

Imagine a planet where they had all the same technical smarts as us, and everything else was equal, but they couldn't just whack a pipe into the ground and get energy out.

Would they have an industrial society?