This is a guest post by Lester R. Brown, founder and President of the Earth Policy Institute . His principal research areas include food, population, water, climate change, and renewable energy; see his list of publications by clicking here . Today we are an oil-based civilization, one that is totally dependent on a resource whose production will soon be falling. Since 1981, the quantity of oil extracted has exceeded new discoveries by an ever-widening margin. In 2008, the world pumped 31 b