The news on oil has been pretty scary.

You may have missed it because the mainstream media seems to be asleep at the pump. Some oil news does get into the papers, but it resides in the very unread bowels of the news or business sections. And TV seems more far more interested in crude celebrities than crude oil. Left-leaning newsmen and liberal politicians prefer to blame big oil instead of conveying the reality of the coming oil crisis, which has already started.

But here are the scary news items, the bits and pieces which will intersect to create the perfect storm which will destroy your lifestyle and threaten your very life:

• Britain's famed North Sea fields have declined more than 30 percent recently and the future is all downhill.
• The Mexican oil field which produces 60 percent of that nation's production is confronting rapidly rising water levels -- and a rapid five-year decline in oil output.
• Indonesia has recently jumped across the table, turning from oil exporter to oil importer.
• Kuwait's Burgen field, the second largest in the world, is now exhausted and past its peak, causing production to begin a steady decline.
• Many oil experts feel that Saudi oil fields are in similar condition, past their peaks and in decline.
• Iran's drive for atomic energy is partially based on projections that it too will change from an oil exporter to a net importer.
• Experts observe that the decline of aging fields means the world is going to have to find an additional five million barrels a day in 2007 just to keep even with 2006.
• In the past 50 years, the USA, China and India have moved from oil exporters to oil importers. During the same time period, no nation has moved from oil importer to oil exporter.
• China, India and the USA are projected to be importing 67 percent of their oil by 2010. (But from whom?)

Fatih Birol, Chief Economist at the International Energy Agency (IEA), recently said, "In terms of prices, I think ... it's going to explode." His rationale: demand is rapidly increasing while supply is uncertain.

IEA Executive Director Claude Mandil says, "These projected trends have important implications and lead to a future that is not sustainable."

Sam Bodman, U.S. Energy Secretary, says, ".....if you look out over the next 20, 25 years we expect demand to grow 50 percent to 120 million barrels a day. I wouldn't want to opine that's available. It could be, but I don't know."

Another expert warns, "Spending time and capital to make cars more efficient is a waste of time. Public transportation is the only answer."

Experts warn that long commutes by auto will become a thing of the past, causing real estate markets to collapse in the suburbs and exurbs and destroying much of this nation's wealth.

And the problem isn't just an American one. Dominque de Villepin, Prime Minister of France, says "...Oil should head down, never to revive.... An international economic disturbance of this magnitude will create potential conflicts between nations and civil competition within societies." (He means that, in winter, freezing Muslim youths will keep warm by burning tens of thousands of the elites' cars.)

Life in the USA will regress to what it was in the 1910-1940 period:

• The nouveau riche will wrap themselves in furs, sitting in the parlors of their unheatable McMansions, staring forlornly at the "For Sale" sign out front.
• The prices of smaller homes located near commuter stations will rise sharply.
• Planned play and afterschool activities will disappear as soccer moms find it too expensive to pilot SUVs around town.
• Small homes located near schools will rise in price.
• New homes will come equipped with basement coal bins.
• Clothes lines will reappear in back yards, leaving gas and electric dryers unused.
• More and more people will work in their homes.
• The world automobile industry will shrink drastically.
• Kids will learn how to walk and run again, reducing the nation's obesity problem.
• New homes will come equipped with front porches and swings so the residents can more easily observe all the neighbors now walking instead of driving.
• The schoolyard will again be filled with bicycles instead of cars.
• "Get a horse!" will again become a popular American expression as Nelly replaces Porsche.
• The motion picture theater will disappear in favor of home entertainment electronics.
• The average home size will begin a steady decline in size, from an average of 2,400 square feet toward 1,200.
• Labor unions will rise again, organizing white-collar workers and professionals long disenchanted by downsizing, outsourcing, poor health benefits, skimpy retirement benefits and low wages. A telecom workers strike will shut America just as effectively as John L. Lewis's coal strike shut down the country in 1940.

You may want to talk with your grandpa or grandma to get some perspective on what life is going to be like in these United States during the coming post-oil period.

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