Despite regular evidence to the contrary going back for generations, so many are ready to fall in to the trap that advancement and innovation is done. If materials, goods, and skill markets are reasonably free and fair, the price signals alone will drive others to innovate and develop alternatives in resource use, resource access/extraction, or resource reduction through the use of other materials or technologies. As long as the rewards for innovation remain, alternatives are likely to be found and developed.
You know, not every problem is solvable by creating another startup. :-)
In particular, it takes a bit more than the spirit of innovation to move the developed world from a depleting energy source to a more renewable energy source.
For example, it's not like oil is going to disappear overnight. When gas prices get up to 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 dollars a gallon... at some point, people are definitely going to start buying electric cars. Same goes for trucks, ships, everything else that uses oil. But innovation to make alternatives available isn't going to happen until market forces make it profitable.
For pretty much any location in the world outside of perhaps France an "electric" car is, in most cases, a coal powered car. There is far too much coal in the ground for it to run out in the near future, market rates alone aren't going to get rid of coal power plants.
> There is far too much coal in the ground for it to run out in the near future
And "640K should be enough for anyone," right? The idea that something will never 'run out' is usually predicated on the assumption that consumption levels will remain the same (or at least only increase linearly rather than exponentially).
