My take-away impressions of the 2010 Peak Oil conference:

• For more than 20 years, we have been using 2 to 3 times more oil than we have been finding. Because oil is finite, sooner or later we will not be able to maintain the amount we burn every day.
• The International Energy Association, the folks that count barrels for the rich nations, estimate that oil fields age at the rate of 5 to 6 percent per year—about 4 million barrels per day, annually. That is the amount we need to find just to keep up with aging oil fields.
• The amount of oil the world is producing has been the same since 2004.  And even though the price went way up, the world did not increase oil production. How come? Maybe it was because we could not. 
• Lloyds of London, in a white paper sent to its business clients, warns of $200 per barrel oil by 2013. That is not surprising; it's about the time the 90-day accessible reserves run out.
•  In Hawai‘i, we are unbelievably lucky to have geothermal. It is way cheaper than oil, it is stable and it is proven technology. It can help to elevate our native people's standard of living, as well as the that of the rest of us.