History Main / PostPeakOil

* It is somewhat debatable how much damage peak oil would do in real life, and it's generally only the fringe that believes that it would cause. The {{UsefulNotes/Economics}} page explores this in the Resource Halt section. A brief explanation, however, says that sellers of oil would start withholding stock to prepare for the scarcity, and oil's price, in event of supplies becoming less available, would slowly rise over time forcing humanity to adapt by either finding a new resource/technology, or increasing energy efficiency and, in some cases, possibly reverting to non-oil-powered technologies (electric trains, organic farming[[note]]Most commercial fertilizers are made using petroleum.[[/note]], et cetera). One of the most commonly cited effects, which is already being seen in some parts of the US now that $4 a gallon gasoline is a reality, is a reversal of the trend towards {{suburb|ia}}an development and a greater focus on city and town centers. Now, a ''sudden'' temporary decrease in availability (such as embargoes, disruption of some sort in production, or transportation routes being cut off), or a war for oil spilling over into a larger conflict, can have nasty consequences, but would most likely only to regional areas, rather than the entire planet.

* In ''HeatGuyJ'', everyone has switched over to a new, unknown power source from the resident SuperiorSpecies (which, incidentally, is described an awful lot like [[NuclearWeaponsTaboo nuclear power]]). Coal and oil are banned and no longer used, because they caused so much air pollution.

* ''MadMax'' (or at least ''Mad Max 2'') is a definite TropeCodifier for this, and a lot of dystopias where oil is valuable as gold are explicit references to the film. It is the oil shortages that began the nuclear war that resulted in the AfterTheEnd setting.

* The song ''Endgame'' by ''RiseAgainst'' has the lyric, "the kerosene's run out," suggesting this is what did the world in.

* Inverted with perhaps unintentional irony in ''FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren''. In the original game, Shinra Energy Corporation was literally sucking the [[TheLifestream life energy of the Planet]] dry in a [[{{anvilicious}} not so subtle]] ecological metaphor. In the movie, the world having barely avoided destruction and Shinra having been taken down, this energy source is obviously no longer used. So what is former eco-terrorist Barret doing nowadays? "Cloud, I found some oil!"

-->--- Introduction to '''Battletruck''' (1982)

* James Howard Kunstler's novels ''A World Made by Hand'' and ''The Witch of Hebron'' are set in a post-peak-oil America where most economic activity is localized agriculture done without powered machinery.

* ''Literature/JulianComstock'' by Robert Charles Wilson is set in a 22nd-century America where the oil has run out; the resulting society ends up feeling like a cross between 19th-century America and 4th-century Rome.

* The [[MadeForTVMovie made-for-TV]] DocuDrama ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iCDeywiTJM Oil Storm]]''. Notable for depicting, as the catalyst for the oil shock, a hurricane hitting [[TheBigEasy New Orleans]] in September 2005... and did we mention that this was made [[HarsherInHindsight just months before Hurricane Katrina]]?[[hottip:*:Of course, the aftermath of Katrina wasn't nearly as bad as what happened in the movie, but still, gas prices hit $6 a gallon in {{Atlanta}}.]]

* It is somewhat debatable how much damage peak oil would do in real life, and it's generally only the fringe that believes that it would cause. The {{UsefulNotes/Economics}} page explores this in the Resource Halt section. A brief explanation, however, says that sellers of oil would start withholding stock to prepare for the scarcity, and oil's price, in event of supplies becoming less available, would slowly rise over time forcing humanity to adapt by either finding a new resource/technology, or increasing energy efficiency and, in some cases, possibly reverting to non-oil-powered technologies (electric trains, organic farming[[hottip:*:Most commercial fertilizers are made using petroleum.]], et cetera). One of the most commonly cited effects, which is already being seen in some parts of the US now that $4 a gallon gasoline is a reality, is a reversal of the trend towards {{suburb|ia}}an development and a greater focus on city and town centers. Now, a ''sudden'' temporary decrease in availability (such as embargoes, disruption of some sort in production, or transportation routes being cut off), or a war for oil spilling over into a larger conflict, can have nasty consequences, but would most likely only to regional areas, rather than the entire planet.

* The story of ''Film/{{Americathon}}'' is set in a future United States where the gas shortage of the 1970's grew to a point where the automobile has been completely eliminated, except as a possession one can park permanently and live in.
** One of the acts has a wrestler-type "superhero," played by ''MeatLoaf'', battling "the last car." Everyone cheers when he destroys it, and later, bidding happens on a pint of his blood. Squick!!

*** The first car able to burn 1 liter of Diesel per 100 km (which translates into a mind-blowing '''''282 mpg''''') has already run for 10 years. And it's not a hybrid.

* The ''{{Uglies}}'' series.
* ''Literature/TheWindupGirl'' by Paolo Bacigalupi; having exhausted all oil the world is back to using human and animal power, which is wound into springs to be released at need. The one resource everyone's after are calories to power the muscles that'll wind up the springs.
** ''ShipBreaker'' by the same author, which is set in the same universe. Old oil tankers are broken for scrap, and whatever pockets of oil they still contain are priceless finds that can make a man's fortune.

* In James White's ''{{Literature/Underkill}}'' the world is a pretty dismal place after a crisis called the "Powerdown".
* UrsulaKLeGuin's ''Always Coming Home'' features a post-industrial society without oil. Most societies manage without advanced technology, but there are AI's maintaining a database and a version of Internet (the book was published in 1985!). One expansionist state decided to build a few military planes. Turned out it was CoolButInefficient under the circumstances. As in "the empire collapses after a year due to wasting all their food making biofuel".
* Something similar to this trope occurs early on in Olaf Stapledon's future history ''Literature/LastAndFirstMen'' (made in 1930), once First!Humanity exhausts every last deposit of fossil fuel on Earth. The Americanized OneWorldOrder starts falling apart as reserves run dry and the public at large learns of just how dire their predicament really is. Eventually, it leads to civilization collapsing entirely and a new dark age lasting several thousand years.

* Something similar to this trope occurs early on in Olaf Stapledon's future history ''LastAndFirstMen'' (made in 1930), once First!Humanity exhausts every last deposit of fossil fuel on Earth. The Americanized OneWorldOrder starts falling apart as reserves run dry and the public at large learns of just how dire their predicament really is. Eventually, it leads to civilization collapsing entirely and a new dark age lasting several thousand years.

*** The first car able to burn 1 liter of Diesel per 100 km (which translates into a mind-blowing '''''282 mpg''''' in American measures) has already run for a few years. And it's not a hybrid.

* Technically, ways to produce liquid fuels from gas or coal do exist and resulting product is costly, but within reasonable limits. And there is really much coal on Earth. And even after coal exhaustion, there are ways to produce liquid fuels from biomass, that are in development even now, so-called biodiesel.

* Whether oil reserves have actually dried up is not mentioned for sure, but the world of ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps2'' has rare earth elements replacing it as the most in-demand natural resource, and the tension caused by China's monopoly on their sale and production is a major element of the New Cold War between them and the US.

* In ''[[SoylentGreen Make Room! Make Room!]]'' by Harry Harrison, cities effectively become their own totally isolated city states when the oil becomes too rare to use. The only form of travel mentioned are large freighters (shipping food to the millions effectively trapped in cities).

* The story of ''{{Americathon}}'' is set in a future United States where the gas shortage of the 1970's grew to a point where the automobile has been completely eliminated, except as a possession one can park permanently and live in.

* ''JulianComstock'' by Robert Charles Wilson is set in a 22nd-century America where the oil has run out; the resulting society ends up feeling like a cross between 19th-century America and 4th-century Rome.