This info is a summary of data from www.energybulletin.net and www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.com. 

What is Peak Oil?

• Oil is a finite, non-renewable resource
• We currently use 84 millions barrels per day globally
• Once we use up half the reserves, oil production will begin a terminal decline
• "Peak" = the moment before the decline
• It does not mean we have run out of oil
• It does mean the end of the availability of cheap oil, which is oil that is easily accessible (not under the ocean or up in Alaska)
• Much of America's economic growth depends upon the availability of cheap oil
• If it takes the energy of a barrel of oil to extract a barrel of oil, further extraction is pointless, no matter the price of oil.

In 1950, M. King Hubbert - a geologist working for Shell Oil - was the first to predict oil reserve peaks.

• In 1956, Hubbert predicted production from the lower 48 states would peak between 1965 and 1970.
• It peaked in 1970-1971, which is when the gas crisis happened.  Gas lines formed because of a 5% drop in oil availability.
• This ended the status of the U.S. as the world's major creditor nation.  We imported oil instead of cutting back.  Mounting debt has allowed life to continue without interruption.
• When global oil production peaks, the implications will be more widely felt and with more force.

Oil Usage Stats

• 43% of the world's total fuel consumption is based on oil
• 95% of global energy is used for transportation
• Oil is a feedstock for the creation of plastics, paints, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, electronic components, tires and more.
• For every one joule of food consumed in the U.S., around 10 joules of fossil fuel energy have been used to produce it.
• Since the mid-1980's oil companies have been finding less oil than we have been consuming.

Global Peak Oil Ramifications

• Of the 65 largest oil producing countries, 54 have passed their peak oil production
• Mounting evidence shows the peak of global oil production occurred in May 2005 and the peak of all liquids in July 2006.
• If the future rate of decline is 1-2% we may be able to coordinate adaptation, but if the rate is 10% it will implode the global economy.  Most models predict 2-4%.
• Nations dependent on imports are likely to find their access will fall at a sharper rate than the global decline rate, while consumption rises or remains steady with exporting nations.
• Other fuel sources such as hydrogen, wind, solar, and hydro power have a a low EROEI (Energy Returned On Energy Invested) ratio.  Oil's was high until it peaked.  It will take a long period of time and great investment of money to widely implement alternative energy sources that can accommodate the current demand.  We may not know with total certainty the usefulness of any renewable energy technology until the hidden fossil fuel energy subsidies are finally removed.

Reduce Your Footprint

Reduce Automobile Driving

• Choose to walk, ride a bike, or take a bus
• Combine all shopping trips for the week into a single trip (plan ahead, in other words)
• Cooperatively schedule trips to the grocery store or running errands with another family - less gas is used, more relationship is built
• Live where you have services within 1/4 mile
• Many ecovillages have pedestrian-only interiors with parking on the perimeter
• When shopping, park your car quickly (on the perimeter of the parking lot) and walk to the store rather than driving in circles to find the closest spot

Reduce Impact of Meat Consumption and Produce Production

• Shop at a grocery store that offers organic meat and produce (organic producers have a lower impact on the environment, by design)
• Grow a garden, even if it's in your windowsill.  No one should be buying all their produce at the grocery store.  That produce has likely been shipped a thousand miles or more to get there - think of the ecological impact of that, not to mention the lack of nutrients in foods picked unripened.
• Replace non-productive landscape with food-producing areas (fruit trees, gardens, edible landscape plants, etc.)
• Participate in (or create) a community garden
• Recycle food scraps through composting
• Raise hens (check zoning with city)

Eliminate Use of Chemicals

• Clean your house with natural biodegradable soaps and essential oils
• Choose natural products (laundry, toilet paper, makeup, lotions, cleaning, medicines, hygiene, foods, decorating, air fresheners - chemicals are everywhere and they are killing us)
• Use muscle power rather than chemical power (furniture refinishing, for example)
• As a general rule, if you can't pronounce it, don't let it touch you or enter your body through your environment.
• Reduce or eliminate the use of plastics, especially in the kitchen.  Every plastic is somewhat permeable, meaning that the chemicals (petroleum-based, by the way) are getting into your body.  Use glass containers for food storage.
• Never use plastics in the microwave!  The waves cause the plastic to release its chemicals faster. Plastic wrap, in particular, used in the microwave is a proven powerful carcinogen (cancer-causing agent).  (Consider not using the microwave at all - that's a whole other subject.)

Reduce Water Consumption

• Grow local plant varieties
• Grow plants that do not need much water (xeriscape, for example)
• Reduce or eliminate your lawn area
• Use drip irrigation rather than sprinklers
• Capture and recycle gray water (bath water, dish washing water, etc. - using a big tub, think of the water you could keep from going down the drain)
• Use high-yield in small space methods for gardening (raised beds, for example)
• Take military showers (turn water off while soaping up) and take fewer of them
• Turn off the water while you brush your teeth
• Rinse dishes in a tub of water, rather than under running tap water (then dump the water on your garden!)

Reduce Your Contribution to the Local Landfill

• If your family generates more than one bag of trash per week, you could be recycling more.  Make one bag (or less) your goal.
• Recycle glass
• Recycle plastics (look for triangle symbol with a 1 or 2)
• Recycle cardboard
• Recycle newspapers and office paper
• Recycle old phone books
• Recycle metal cans (rinse them out and remove the paper labels)
• Recycle drink containers (pop cans - if you still drink pop)
• Recycle paper board (the thin cardboard used in many food and product packaging)
• Compost natural materials (food scraps, leaves and grass clippings from lawn, etc.)
• Choose products in large containers rather than many small ones (bottled water or tea, for example.  Reuse glass bottles as the smaller containers.)
• Never put batteries in the trash!  They are one of the most toxic substances put into landfills - we are poisoning the future with them.  Most recycling centers have a place for batteries.  Don't forget to recycle your old cell phone battery.
• Find someone who wants what you don't want anymore (furniture, wood scraps, old appliances, computer parts, toys - all these things are going into landfills)
• Reduce the trash you generate - think of greener alternatives for greeting cards, gift wrapping, communications, food consumption, and a thousand other little ways we create refuse. 
• Remember the bumper sticker, "Throw it away?  There is no away."

Reduce Fossil Fuel Use for Heating

• Reduce demand with smaller, more efficient buildings
• Close off rooms that you are not using regularly or even choose not to use certain parts of your house to reduce heating costs
• Retrofit existing buildings (additional insulation, solar panels, sealing cracks, etc.)
• Design landscaping to reduce heating requirements (plant deciduous trees on the south side of the house to keep it cool in summer and allow sunlight in winter, plant wind breaks on the north side of house)
• Orient street layout and house positioning to maximize solar access for passive solar gain
• Implement radiant and other heating technologies
• Install efficient (energy star) appliances
• Utilize hot water heat recovery systems

Reduce Fossil Fuel Use for Cooling

• Avoid hot climates
• Design landscape to lessen cooling load
• Create a cooler micro-climate
• Use light-colored roofing materials
• Use heat barriers and ventilation in attics and roofs
• Use natural ventilation systems
• Design the kitchen to take advantage of natural, outdoor, or ground cooling for refrigeration
• Use renewable energy

Reduce Energy Demand from Lighting

• Turn off lights when you don't need them
• Use energy efficient bulbs (CFL or LED)
• Use automatic timers
• Use renewable energy
• Install dimmer switches (and keep the lights as low as possible)
• Go to bed early!

Reduce Impacts of Home Construction

• Position and cluster housing in ways to preserve connected habitat
• Decrease the house's footprint by building up
• Minimize disturbance to the site during construction
• Use materials that have low embedded energy (including energy required by transportation) and are non-toxic
• Houses with common walls (duplexes, for example) use less energy and resources

Decrease Impact of Sewage Treatment

• Separate industrial contaminants from biological wastes (in other words, be careful what you pour down the drain!)
• Recycle industrial contaminants back into industry (tires, batteries, oil, metal, glass, paper, plastics, etc.)
• Recycle biological wastes (actually nutrients) into biological systems using natural biological processes to purify, while nutrients help grow plants
• Explore toilet alternatives that are not based on defecating into municipal water systems (composting toilets, on-site or neighborhood-scale biological treatment systems
• Design to treat waste water as locally as possible
• Recycle gray water into your landscape
• Combine gray water recycling with biological filtration and infiltration of runoff water to reduce runoff
• Consider rain water catchment systems

Share Resources with Your Neighbors

• Rather than everyone owning equipment (lawn mower, for example) find ways to cooperatively own, use, maintain and upgrade equipment
• Create a community garden
• Plan shopping trips together
• Have community garage sales several times a year (consider using proceeds to improve the community or buy communal equipment)
• Make runs to the recycling center together
• Use the same trash collector company to reduce the number of big trucks going through the neighborhood
• Have yearly toy swap meets
• Create a groupsite for your community that encourages communication and sharing of resources  (How about www.3Thirds.collectivex.com?!) 

There's more than this!   What can you come up with???