Here in Florida, entire cities were built during the 1990s with no provision for public transit while inter-city rail transit was blocked by Governor Jeb Bush.

Meanwhile, the prevalence of large personal vehicles on the streets led to an arms race--no one wanted to be mini among the SUVs.

D Martin, Vero Beach, USA

I'm moving to Australia...heaps of resources, heaps of LPG, coal, uranium and almost any other resource you can name. Its probably the only western country that will get rich beyond its wildest dreams from all of what is to come.

Michael, Londpn, UK

For those of you who believe that we can easily exploit tar sands and oil shales, go out to the street and look at the blacktop/tarmac. That's what folks are talking about exploiting. Unlike easy to pump oil, this has to be mined and processed at great cost in natural resources & energy.

Charles Sontag, Binghamton, United States

Less that Americans are car-crazed, more that our public transport is terrible and we HAVE to travel to work to meet our financial obligations. The UK is six times more population-dense than the US and has extensive rail; of course you can drive less. Less name calling, more solution finding, ta.

E.E., NY, London,

The American economy is shifting, as it often does every 10-20 years, after years of slowly rising energy prices, new finds in the American Midwest show that the US has a personal bank of 1.7 trillion barrels stretching from northern Utah, to the Dakota's. This will be tapped in the next 20 years.

Scott, Hesperia, USA

Gary's article is a brilliant and brief study of growth, limits, and delayed response. A new kind of economics may be part of the solution as we reach the planet's limits to growth. But we will also need to stop population growth and individual expectations of consumption.

Jesus Pascual, Seville, Spain

Tian Qingyou suggests that "If every country is rationed with oil for the number of people each country has, perhaps it is a solution". Perhaps this is because China has over one billion people and would therefore qualify for more oil? The US needs more than China smaller pop. or not and will get it

Thucydides, Oxford, UK

We're at peak oil production, while there may be many years of oil left production will not increase, no big finds = greater cost, less profit + therefore less investment. Limited supply leads to dramatic cost increases, with small increases in demand, price is limited by the second highest bidder

Matt Bleasdale, Leicester,

I trade futures privately and I can assure anyone it's not gambling!

John, London,

Well, we are hearing from central bankers what people with foresight (environmentalists) have been telling us for decades.

The only difference is that that if a message from concerned do-gooders is easy to ignore, but it carries weight coming from the market.

We'll solve the scarcity, at a price.

Golodh, London, UK

The $11 spike was caused by news: unemployment and comments in the middle East. Retracement now means it's back down. Same with the dollar spiking down. It's now 'retraced' 100% to where it was before the news, and after a few more hours, will proceed to new highs.

No panic, please!

John, London,

There is no need for the pessimism.

This is an exciting time when people expore the alternatives to oil and have the opportunities to make vast sums of money doing so. Also, we can re-claim our streets for walking, cycling and socialising on.

Excellent, more business and better lives.

sam, carlisle, uk

Anyone who doesn't understand the connection between oil and population should ask what commodity sustained the so called green revolution, and the pharmecutical industry. Not to mention the consumer society.

C Smith, Norwich, UK

Some people seem to think that cheap oil has created an overpopulated world. Now, hang on, overpopulation is a problem in third world countires. In the western world where we have benefitted from "cheap" oil, we no longer produce enough children to sustain our own populations.

htp, Llandudno, Wales

Malthus wasn't wrong. His timing was a couple of centuries out as he didn't forsee the impact of fossil fuels.

David, London,

Car crazed Americans, car crazed Brits!? There are 300m people in America, only 64m in UK. American engines are regularly over 4 litres, funny really I often notice how small cars in the UK are by comparison!

Roy, Moscow,

The capital markets no longer interested in profit. They only invest in a profit margin that will increase. They equate profit reduction with business loss and the business model supporting this is untenable. Until someone sacks the futures gamblers we won't see the profits just betting losses.

KR, Stockport,

We have managed our problems in the past - and we will in the future.

High prices stop waste and missmanagement. Dino-cars will disappeare, recycling-effords will bring good profits, investing in better technology will bring new jobs.

Peter Vernunft, Berlin, Germany

Fossile oil will eventually be run out and the only way out is that the whole world works together to find alternatives in a not very distant future. If every country is rationed with oil for the number of people each country has, perhaps it is a solution for the time being in hacking down oil price

Tian Qingyou, Tianjin,

The current (and short term future) price of oil is a bubble. When it is pricked we will have a new crisis; that of the banks and investment vehicles who invested billions speculating in it and lost out - again.

figurewizard, Petersfield, UK

A lifetime oilman tells me that there is no actual shortage of oil - "enough for present and predicted demand for 300 years."
Speculation is principally to blame for the current price spike.
Americans at $4 a gallon : think how we cope here in the UK at double that thanks to ruinous taxes!!

J B King, Christchurch, Hants UK

There is no shortage of oil. There is plenty of heavy oil around, but no refineries. The last one built in America was in the 1970's. The face to face unregulated trading in futures by - guess who? - the banks are the cause of this bubble.
Make debts from unregulated trading unenforceable debt

David Nammory, Liverpool,

Coal converted to oil, at huge cost, will last less than 100 years.
Tar sands etc. are hugely resource hungry to oilify.
There is no more cheap energy with the versatility of oil.
We are too many humans (thanks to cheap oil), and we won't face reality.
War for oil is happening; expect a lot more.

C Smith, Norwich, UK

The problem with fighting a war over oil is the fragility of the extraction infrastructure. Given the cheap oil is about gone it may well be prohibitive in cost terms to rebuild extensive infrastructure very soon. This is not a civilization survivable scenario using war or diplomacy - tough one!

kevin, Lincoln, UK

as a former Clinton supporter, I, like most dems will now offer full support to Obama.To the Obama camp consider the following : you can run a clean campaign no matter what is thrown at you. You only have to convince every dem and indep to back you. Let the reds look sleazy, be above their dirt!

evelyn chamblee, morgan hill, america

The Bakken field in the Rockies has been estimated to contain 400 billion barrels with an additional 150 billion barrels available on our continental shelf. When we reduce our crude imports it will allow the expanding economies to take off with cheap oil to fuel the growth

stu dragon, Sidney, Montana, USA

Save a lot of money and stop child/family allowances. An overpopulated world cannot continue to produce children as they are doing now and for the last decade, Youwant children? You pay for them, schools, health services etc.

M Wilson, Bidache, france

Oh those crazy Americans Gary! They just love their cars... Of course the UK is full of sensible cyclists, no car problem there.

I don't see many hybrids or electric cars in Britain and unleaded fuel was introduced decades ahead of the UK. Spare the pompous lectures.

charlie, los angeles, usa, expat

to I. Kelly, Toledo, Oregon, USA
Petrol in the UK costs 2.5 times what it costs in th US so arguably we do have far fewer car crazies.
Equally though this article does seem a little excessive on the negativity
PS the world has plenty of coal left.

Russ, High Wycombe, UK

We are slaves to Capitalism, yet economic growth must soon reverse. In a world where a minority have far too much luxury, a majority too little, the future means one thing only:
WAR.
USA is still the richest country and by far the mightiest.
Cameron must be very nice to Obama and McCain!

Harlan Leyside, Basildon, England

The price of oil is artificial, driven by speculators.
OPEC states the supply line is full no more oil is needed.

If the margin to buy contracts is increased from 7% to 70% the price will drop immediately.

With ENRON we had blackouts and high prices.
ENRON gone no problem.

Oil same STORY

Alex Hogg, san diego, usa

What a ridiculous doom and gloom article.
Innovation and progress are over.
Time to polish up the old horse harness and buggy. Bring back ocean sailing ships and steam engines. Oh, wait they use coal and we're running out of that.
Car crazed Americans. How original .
No car crazies in the UK.

I. Kelly, Toledo, Oregon, USA

Since 2001, price of oil has increased 12 fold ($20 to $240), doubling in last year alone.
World oil consumption has increased by 20% in that period(+0.2 demand vs. 12 fold price rise).
What happened to the law of "supply and demand"?
Have supplies dwindled by 12 fold ?

J.J., California, USA

As I remember History 101, wars have been waged over scare resources.

JD, Honolulu, USA

Economic pain at a personal level is about the only thing that will bring home to US-based US citizens the folly of their government's domestic and foreign policies. So suck it up, guys.

Andrew Milner, Karuizawa, Japan