What Happens When the Oil Runs Out?

When I wake up in the morning, my first thought is usually I'm hungry, I need to go to the bathroom, or I need a cigarette. And the rest of my day continues much the same. The point is, my needs and wants constantly run through my mind. If I need something, I go get it or do it, without much thought about how. But what would happen if these everyday needs aren't easily met? What if I woke up and couldn't turn the T.V. on because there is no electricity, or I couldn't get in my car and go to the grocery store because I have no gas, or worse, there is no food at the store because deliveries haven't been made?
There is a lot of debate about how dependent our society is on oil. Many people believe that the only reason we went to Iraq was for oil. Sandra Mathews is one of the people that feel this way. Mathews, an environmental studies major at Oakland Community College, said she has major concerns about our oil situation and about what would happen if our society continues on the path we are going.
"We are way to dependent on oil," Mathews said. "Eventually, it is going to run out or at least become very expensive. We need to put way more focus on alternative energy and become self-sufficient. We can't continue to depend on oil from other countries."
Solar energy, wind energy, bio-diesel and ethanol are examples of alternative energy that would help us reduce our dependence on oil.
According to the author James Howard Kunstler our society may not be able to produce enough energy through alternative resources to function the way we do when oil scarcity becomes a problem.
Wikipedia states that Knustler believes "scarcity of petroleum will cause significant problems for transportation and generation of electrical power. In addition, shipping of food and manufactured items will become increasingly expensive, ultimately prohibitively so."
He states that one way to keep society from falling apart is to break up the cities in smaller communities with land to grow their own food and make walking and bike riding the main means of transportation.
This idea, to me, seems impossible. With an ever-increasing urban society, I could never imagine us changing our ways so dramatically. It seems he wants America to go back to the days of "Little House On The Prairie." Well, I don't know how to ride a horse, or churn butter and I probably never will. Nor could I imagine a day where I can't get in my car and drive to the Tiger's game.
But obviously there is a serious situation going on environmentally with our oil dependence, and I don't think enough people are thinking about it because the effects of the problem are not directly in our faces, yet.