Our reliance on oil is a serious vulnerability: political upheaval or war, financial crisis and peak oil are all potential dangers. Could we survive without oil and gas?

The Amish people (wealthy farmers) live an oil free existence: that couldnt be replicated for large scale urban society.

Sweden a couple of year's ago announced a plan to be oil free by 2020. On closer inspection, the plan (although worthwhile) is not entirely solid and is not entirely oil free.

http://www.erdoel-vereinigung.ch/Use...th_oilfree.pdf

Cuba is an example of oil free survival;

The Cuban predicament was difficult, but they survived.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Period

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil | Global Public Media

Should we not be taking steps to become an oil-free society?

What is the right model, and the best possibilities for success?

No, you'll always need oil for some things - aviation for example.
But we certainly ought to be harnessing wind power in a big way. We could be net exporters of electricity in a relatively short time according to those lads who took out all the ads in the papers last week.

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Just going to put a disclaimer before my remarks here - I'm a fully paid-up democratic capitalist - but the following is my cold logical opinion.

This kind of transition is not possible in any kind of 'democracy' that we would recognise as such today - which is why it can be done in somewhere like Cuba. Incredibly tough & unpopular decisions will need to be taken (and more importantly, enforced) to transition to a lower-energy/non-fossil-fuel culture.

NIMBY-ism would need to be swept aside, contract-law & property rights superseded in many cases etc etc. Society at large does not understand the degree to which our food & energy supplies are tied to fossil fuels.

Wonderful idea. Apart from Cuba, other exemplars include Haiti, Zimbabwe, Somalia.

Oh what a green bliss!

The one thing we need that is a scarce resource is the political will to do the above.

The Green Party havent exactly inspired me to any great confidence as to their energy plans.

Oil, if you'll pardon the pun, is dead. I'd even go Nuclear (and live close to a plant as well) if needs be, although I would prefer not to go that route is at all possible, I fail to see why we cant have wind turbines fitted to the top of everyones home in this day and age.

The main impediment, I feel, is vested interests?

I concur with what you say, even down to the nuclear.
But there's no reason for extremist proposals that would garner no popular support.
The wind energy idea, on the other hand, has the dual benefit of being a genuinely impactful proposal and being popular.
Why don't the government just give it the green light? Where are the vested interests preventing it?

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Er... if oil will eventually run as it will then preparing for this is surely not optional?

There's loads of oil.

Its $40 per barrel and at present producers are running out of places to store the excess production.

I will make a deal will all you oil haters. You go and do whatever you want but, don't demand a hand out to do it. I will keep using petrol and you can stop taxing the bejesus out of it.

Loads does not equal infinity

"From oil dependancy to local community resilience"

Not sure if any of ye have heard of the transition movement, grew out of Rop Hopkins and his Permaculture course in Kinsale, its kicked off bigtime. More so in English speaking world, yet, much of Ireland, it seems, is not as far gone as other places. Here in Barcelona, we had our first event pelis por pachamama last friday. You can read the full Transition handbook online (creative commons - but without images), to get a basic intro id suggest the Transition primer

heres 2 films we showed at that event

(3 mins)

(52 mins)