Lindsay Brooke (in A MODEST PROPOSAL) may be no alarmist, but those of us who are, feel amply justified. The world’s appetite for oil, a finite, non-renewable resource, is an amazing 84 million barrels per day and rising briskly. Oil is destined to reach production peak and enter an eternal period of ever-diminishing yields any day now. We face serious problems not when it “runs out,” but as soon as our demand outpaces production. Every material item in our midst has a significant petroleum component.

A future of diminishing energy will present industrialized societies with a uniquely vexing and daunting challenge, perhaps greater than anything our nation has faced since the Civil War. And, of course, our motorcycles go nowhere without it.

Efficient two-wheelers, both pedal- and petrol-powered, will have a role in the survivability of an oil-short world. Good thing they’re so much fun.