In response to the last question on the list, sadly, no.

The effect of hope and optimism on fertility is well established by now. The current crises, once they are fully understood by the public, will result in zero population growth faster than any humane alternative. Until then, the effect of solutions will be quickly countered by the increased population that their announcement will encourage.

A recent example is the euphoria surrounding the U.S. election, leading to an expected baby boom.

In a perfect world, zero population growth would be a virtue, taught in Sunday schools and Madrasahs. But that's not likely anytime soon, so in the meantime 'polymathic forward thinkers' should probably remain in stealth mode.

To the extent that people are moving away from religion it is because they becoming more knowledgable and enlightened. To imply loss of religion is a cause of societal moral degeneracy and in turn to peak oil is quite a stretch (or rather, two stretches).

Rather, the failure of individuals, states and the world collectively to respond to peak oil is can be ascribed to the following factors:

Socialogical / Psychological
1. Denial / disbelief (this cannot be happening really, can it?)
2. The soporific comforting effects of consumerism and affluence (note that this is independent of religious views or lack thereof)
3. An expectation that science and technology can solve all future problems (or perhaps for the religious amongst us, plain old blind faith)

Corporate /political
1. Business management motivated to quarterly or annual results when choosing between alternatives to allocate capital.
2. Strategic pricing of oil by the OPEC and the oil industry over many years to dissuade investment in alternatives
3. The US being fixated with oil supply side over demand side, perhaps because half the outgoing regime are oil industry men.

Financial / economic
1. Artificially low cost of capital and artificially high returns driven by unchecked M3 growth
2. Fear of (real) renewables which have a lot lower lifetime customer values. By definition, a renewable anything has a lower cost to run and own than something you pay by the litre/mile to keep going. After all, the basis of capitalism is consumption. Maybe capitalism should have been called consumptionism.
3. Market failure in the sense that the many negative externalities have never been fully factored into oil consumption.
4. Disbelief or hostility by mainstream economists towards a world in which compound growth is no longer a given. So much of our modern economic and ultimately societal underpinnings come back to this one simple fact, itself underpinned by ready and cheap energy and oil. Reorientation towards a new zero growth / low growth paradigm in economics awaits a modern day Keynes. I know he or she is out there somewhere.

I am sure there are a heap more factors, but that is what comes to mind (whereas lack of religion does not).

There was a great article in SciAm last year(?) on what it would take to rid the US of foreign energy dependence. Honestly, I think it is going to take something of that magnitude to get out of this. However, like climate change, people won't believe something unless they can see it. Therefore, I am fairly certain at least some level of impact has to be felt before the massive investment required to reorient to a renewable society could be justified to the populace. Whether that is inherently defeating, because any impact signals we've left it all too late, remains to be seen. Either way, there will be winners and losers.

Personally, I think the world economy and quality of life is going to go through a period of sustained decline before things get better. Eventually, the world (economically, socially, politically) will realign to the new realities of steady state and sustainability. After all, is there really an alternative?

How far we shall decline and how steeply before reaching that place, I leave for experts on this site to judge.

Unfortunately it's also true that religion is under attack, not because people really think it's dumb, but because they don't want to think about longer term consequences.

I am so very pleased you can see into the mind of every non-religious person on the planet who speaks less than positively about religion.

/s

I invite you to figure out the many errors inherent in your statement. (Hint: It's quite similar to "They hate us for our freedom!")

Even though I am a christian I see society in general being under attack by fanatics of various faith groups. These fanatics like to claim they are the victims of society as they attack the civil rights of women, gays, and poor people in general. They form picket lines outside ob/gyn offices but I have never heard of pro-choice groups picketing any church. They beat down gays with Old Testament verses taken out of context which is what Jesus chastised the Pharisees of doing to the common folk. The poor are poor because they didn't pay their tithes to the fanatics.

Religions in the 21st century face the problem presenting themselves using metaphors that made sense to an agrarian culture but are meaningless in the age of the Internet. Few understand that the word "sin" was a term borrowed from archery competitions. Very few people have thrust in their sickle and brought in a sheave. Being cleansed in the blood doesn't make any sense if you are ignorant of the practices of the mystery religions which the Apostle Paul was competing with. Today's people believe a tanner is someone renting time under some UV lamps and have no understanding of the low place in life those making leather were held. Those who are biblical literalists have the burden of reconciling the many contradictions in their perfect book. Their rejection of evolution has hurt the cause of Christianity much more than anything Darwin and company ever could. I have never understood why literal acceptance of the first few chapters of Genesis is essential to accepting the teachings of Jesus. It is not that people don't like thinking about long term consequences as much as they can't see the connections between what the fanatics propagandize them with and the challenges of 21st century life.