>>>http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=336263836904604
>>>
>>>Thursday marked the 150th anniversary of a seminal event in history: the birth of the oil industry. On that day in 1859, Edwin Drake struck black gold with the first commercial oil well — creating an industry that would provide the lifeblood for modern civilization.
>>>
>>>http://www.greentechhistory.com/2009/08/gallery-the-worlds-first-oil-field/
>>>http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/after-150-years-whither-oil/
>>>http://www.theoildrum.com/node/5715
>>>http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/08/17/its_still_the_one
>>
>>Let's hope when the 175th anniversary rolls around oil is mainly just a historical artifact.
>
>There are many uses for petroleum other than burning in IC engines. It would damage civilization to stop these uses by shutting down the oil industry.

I wasn't suggesting that we shut it down. What would be nice would be to find cleaner and less finite alternatives. We have already used a lot of the oil that was easy to get to. It will become more and more expensive to extract what's left. You know where one of the largest remaining oil reserves in the world is? The Siberian tundra, not only remote but deep under permafrost.

The other advantage of oil alternatives, of course, is we could tell the Arab states and Venezuela to go screw themselves.