>Take a look at the graphs on population and also on London air pollution. Interesting.
>http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=718860

"In the case of oil, for example, reserves that could be extracted at reasonably competitive prices would keep the world economy running for about 150 years at present consumption rates."

The author makes a classic error: "at the present consumption rate".

When the Club of Rome study came out oil companies refuted it by stating that the world had "600 years of coal and oil left, at the present rate of consumption". Fifteen years later, in 1987, they claimed "200 years of coal and oil remain, at the present rate of consumption". In fifteen years the world lost 400 years of resources!! Now I see this author uses the same logic to support a claim of 150 years of oil remaining, with no mention of coal. An elementry physics and/or calculus problem I always assigned to my classes was, "Given these two (now three) estimates of fossil fuel longivity, when will the resource actually run out?" Some of the more ingenious students would consult records on total proven and economically recoverable oil and coal reserves and production for the whole world, not just the USA. And, they would compute a range of values based on both the total estimated resources available, and the possible annual rates of consumption. At the standard consumption rates of 7-8% the resources would last another 50 years, circa 2040 AD. If the rates rose to 13% then the resources would exhaust in 25-30 years, circa 2020 AD. Then I had them allow for 10X the known amount of reserves at 13% and they were stunned by the results: only an additional 13 years added to the lifetime of the resources! Then they understood full well the power of exponential growth or decline.

BTW, a 13% consumption rate is not out of line, if you expect the other 90% of the planet's occupants would like to achieve the same standard of living as the other 10%.
When you consider what the population is doing, it not out of the question.

"The best industry estimates reckon that the world began this year with 1,020 billion barrels of oil in "proved" reserves. At the current production rate of 23.6 billion barrels a year, these supplies would last only another 43 years -- if there were no growth in demand. " - James Srodes, Barrons, Oct 19, 1998
http://www.oilcrisis.com/hubbert

Here is a more modern version of the Club of Rome thing:
http://www.dieoff.org/synopsis.htm

What the synopsis fails to consider is the likely hood that another more abundant source of energy will be tapped... Solar energy. Enough to supply the needs of more people than currently populate the planet.

Which brings up another interesting fact: The most accurate population predictor for the planet since 1963, the year it was derived, has been a formula called the Doomsday Equation:

Pop at any year = 1.79X10^11 / (2026.87 - year)^0.99

Play with it and you will see why Friday, November 13th, 2026 is called Doomsday.
It has been rediculed, scorned,etc., when ever it is discussed, otherwise it is ignored. But, in the last 40 years it is the only predictor of world population that has been anywhere near accurate. The three numeric constants were obtained from the calculus derivation after plugging in all know population parameters in recorded history.

If this equation is anywhere near as accurate in the next 25 years as it has been in the last 40 years then we are in for one wild ride.