It seems to me that one of the keys to the puzzle of why people don't understand the problems that peak oil and other sustainability issues present is innumeracy and/or a lack of understanding spatial/change functions--namely the meaning and implications of constant growth.

I found a lecture that can help (linked over at GPM here) by Dr. Albert Bartlett. Dr. Bartlett professes physics at the University of Colorado. He knows what he's talking about--that much I can vouch for.

If you need me to sell it to you so you'll watch it, that's under the fold, as well as links to the other two videos you should watch from youtube, one on the Canadian oil sands, the other a 90 second short on peak oil.