People had best wake up to the concept of peak energy fast. I am stunned to the dissonance between the blind faith that "growth" will continue forever when we base our entire economy on non-renewable energy sources. People do not understand that "modern civilization" does not exist without energy and that if we want the former we need to base our energy on sources that do not depelete... AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.
"It's not what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know FOR SURE, that just ain't so." Mark Twain
As a geologist by profession, David Hughes can be excused for looking in all the wrong places for answers to the energy/environment dilemma.
Instead of looking underground, his quest would be more productive if he were to look skyward—somewhere "over the rainbow" as it were.
Nature stores 12,000 TW of Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) in the the troposphere each day most of which is then dissipated during the afternoon and evening. This is 6000 times what man consumes each day using fossil or nuclear fuels.
A Canadian, Louis M. Michaud, P.Eng., has patented a device for harvesting this energy, which, based on conservative estimates, can convert 10% of the CAPE in the air processed by the device, into electricity.
(Ref: http://vortexengine.ca)
In addition to harvesting "natural" CAPE contained in the air, so-called "waste-heat" can be added to the air and subsequently recovered as electricity by the device, with at least the same recovery efficiency. Lakes Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario are fabulous sources of "waste heat", at least through the months of September through February, which are the only ones in which they would be needed.
So, if you're concerned about not having enough electricity in 2030, you needn't be. Neither should you be concerned about "freezing in the dark" since you'll be able to use locally generated, inexpensive electricity to heat your home—using a heat pump, if necessary.
I would concede that we will also probably have to use electricity-based public transportation—the sooner we get out of our cars, the better.
Speaking for myself, I don't find that too high a price to pay if it means avoiding these "doomsday" scenarios. Unfortunately, such scenarios are being pushed as "inevitable" by an increasing number of otherwise well-meaning people who, IMO, would withdraw their warnings if they would just look up and "see the light".
It doesn't matter if Mr. Hughes gives his "Talk" 150 times or 500 times, he is simply wrong in his assessment that we are absolutely running out of ALL primary energy sources on which modern society is based.