I wondered, in the climate of all the current talk of "peak oil" and its consequences (some fear the end of civilisation, some think civilisation will survive, but a huge proportion of the world's population will die in a catastrophic famine), can it be demonstrated that large populations can enjoy a high standard of living without petroleum?
This led me to imagine the following scenario:
An eccentric billionaire (we'll call him Bill Dutopia) has acquired a large tract of land dirt cheap in Mali, smack dab in the middle of the Sahara Desert. It is a long rectangle, 100 by 400 km in size (one thirtieth of Mali, one tenth the size of California, one sixth the size of the UK, and slightly smaller than Denmark), and he has set himself the ambition of building on it the biggest city in the world. It will house a hundred million people. Bill Dutopia sees himself as a latter day Baron Hausmann, or Christopher Wren, so, naturally, he intends that his city will be a utopia, with beautiful architecture and excellent amenities for everyone. He also wants to offer a developed-world standard of living. Last, but not least, he wants the city to be self-sustaining without petroleum.
The city will therefore have to be a miracle city, because at the moment, all he's got on his plot of land are a lot of sunlight, fresh air, and sand. Can he build his city?
If he can, then ninety such cities built in desert sites around the world would be sufficient to accommodate the nine billion population that the UN says are likely to populate the Earth come 2050, and keep them living well in perpetuity. If Bill's city can be built and sustained, then there's no reason to be gloomy about peak oil.
Let's Christen the city Desertopolis.
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