Oil is to Humanity as

a cat's Mother's Milk is to her Kittens:

 Mother's Milk is Liquid Energy flowing directly to Kittens.

 Mother's Milk does Not Last Forever.

While they have Mother's Milk,

Kittens Must Learn to Hunt

or they Will Starve when Mother's Milk is Gone.

Earth's Oil is Mother's Milk for Humanity:

 It is Liquid Energy flowing directly from Earth.

 

Almost Half of Earth's Easy-Flowing Oil is near the Persian Gulf -

- the Earth's Sweet Flowing Breast

 

 where Humanity's Hungry Mouth is Pressed.

Earth's Oil - like Mother's Milk - will Not Last Forever:

By 2040 A.D. Easy-Flowing Oil will be Gone -

- By 2012 A.D. shortages will be severe.

While it has Easy-Flowing Oil,

Humanity Must Learn to Hunt New Energy Sources and Delivery Systems.

The only Energy Sources that could give 10 billion people the standard of living of the USA are:

Nuclear Reactors; and

Massive Space-Based Solar Energy Collectors.

Humanity's next Energy Source should be Nuclear Reactors.

Reserves                     Duration 
              (Terawatt-years)                  (years)

Oil                   850                          1   

Gas                   550                          1   

Methane             1,500                          2   

Coal                7,000                          7   

Uranium           1.9 X 10^9               2,000,000   
(1/1000 of                                             
Earth supply)                                          

Thorium           7.9 x 10^9               8,000,000   
(1/1000 of                                             
Earth supply)                                          

Deuterium         1.9 x 10^9               2,000,000   
(1/1000 of                                             
ocean supply)                                          

Lithium           1.9 x 10^9               2,000,000   
(source of                                            
tritium)                                               

An Energy Distribution System to wean Humanity from Oil could be based on Hydrogen.

Nuclear Reactors could produce Hydrogen and Fresh Water from Sea Water,

Construction of Nuclear Hydrogen-Fresh Water plants MUST begin NOW

Humanity will spend the next few years Fighting Wars over increasingly scarce Oil, and then go into a Dark Age.

Mother Cat and Kittens image from a Purina ONE web page.

Hunting Cat image from a Cats in Art - In Antiquity web page, which says: "... This mosaic portrait of a hunting cat and his catch was discovered during excavations of the houses in Pompeii ... c. 1st century A.D., ... Italy ...".

Earth from Space images from a NASA Goddard web page, which says: "... Apollo 11 view of Earth taken shortly after lift off on 16 July 1969 from a distance of 180,000 km. Most of Africa can be seen at the center of this image, as well as parts of Europe and western Asia, partly covered by clouds, and most of the Middle East. Apollo 11 was in translunar insertion at the time of this photograph, on its way to the historic first moon walk on 20 July. The Earth is 12,740 km in diameter. North is at 11:00. (Apollo 11, AS11-36-5355) ...".

Persian Gulf Oil Map from The Times Atlas of World History, Hammond 1993.

Oil Production Chart adapted from Scientific American, March 1998.