I hope the market does indeed find something to replace fossil fuels, however, I think it's important to understand that the modern-day market place was built on fossil fuels. Fossil fuels have enhanced our lives considerably and have allowed for the world's population to skyrocket to 6.4 billion people. The "green revolution" of the 1950's, enabled us to grow more food than ever imagineable due to insecticides/pesticides that are derived from petroleum. The economies of the world and their growth resulted from the discovery of oil...almost everything we use each day are products of oil.

Where all of this comes into play for us as airline pilots: how much worse is our job stability going to get as a result of a peak in worldwide oil production and how much more will our pay come down as a result? Adjusted for inflation, pilots 20 years ago made 2x more than today. Just 7 yrs. ago, captains/first-officers @ United and Delta were making well over $300/$200 per hour respectively.

The bottom line: oil is still very cheap. $100/barrel is nothing. Divided into coffee cups, that's 14.9 cents per cup. Is there anything in the world that we consume that we pay so little for? Heck, most of us casually walk up to a Starbucks and throw down at least 2 bucks for a cup of coffee. Oil will probably continue its rise; in the meantime, our CEOs and management teams aren't really addressing the fundamental issue: how are they going to continue to run these airlines during the era of peak oil? Heck, United's management supposedly figured $50 buck/barrel for their bankruptcy exit strategy, how far off the mark were they? Now they're talking about consolidation, but I don't see how that will fundamentally make airlines more profitable.

Probably the only way oil prices will either stabilize or come back down to $80/barrel will be due to a severe economic recession, more likely a depression. Just like the high cost of oil, that would not be good for us pilots either, so we're stuck in a real catch-22 here.