The aquifer levels are dropping, and river water is already spread too thin in the southwest. I think that access to fresh water is going to be a lot more expensive in the US soon. But forget peak salt, it is just a byproduct of the desalination plants that will be springing up.

Peak Salt? Give me a break!!

Ever heard of salt flats? Extracting salt from the sea is easy, cheap, non-polluting and has been done for centuries!

A simple google search would have given you a site such as the following one:

http://www.seldeguerande.com

Where you can learn everything there is to learn about the most famous salt flat in France... And one of the most popular salt producer in Europe. (And it's good salt, too!)

"...it may also be worthwhile to figure out some simple salt reclamation methods..."

Okay, how's this for starters:

1. Get shallow pan

2. Fill with seawater

3. Place in sunlight and wait

4. Profit!

Really, it's good. Roasted garlic, salt, bacon, peas and pasta tossed in olive oil. Really, rave-about-it lunch.

Do I really need to point out the difference between "peak Lycra" and "Peak Salt"? If we run out of Lycra, we can go back to animal skins, or whatever. But if we run out of salt, we can... die from salt starvation. Most of the stuff we use, we don't really need. But there are a few things that we can't live without - these are the ones that we should think about in the event of a sudden post-oil collapse (which, as another poster has pointed out, seems rather unlikely in itself). So it's not really true that there's an infinite number of things to worry about. We'd need to concentrate on the problems that could kill us.

Ultimately, what bothers me most about the Peak Oil booster clubs is that they're still seeing things in Malthusian terms: sudden shortages, mass starvation, huge shocking collapses overnight!

Let's say that the increasing cost of oil causes the petrochemical salt-reclamation industry to fold, and renders the current distribution system of ships & trucks inoperable. It's not going to happen overnight. It's going to happen gradiually. And there's no need to start issuing bullitens of "start planing local salt reclamation in your town!", because the gradiual loss of the distribution network will be creating that pressure already, and until there is that pressure, there's no advantage or benefit to developing those resources.

Could Peak Oil lead to Peak Salt? (and Peak Lycra & Peak Bacon!) Sure, in the same way that Peak Oil could lead to massive population deaths, cities becoming utterly uninhabitable due to air polution, and forcing people to live in tiny scattered communes. Is it possible? Sure, but only in a bleak, neo-Malthusian fantasy world where there are only two variables in the equation, and there is a mystical threshhold that, once crossed, accelerates almost infinitely.

In the real world, it's a slow grind. Will there be sudden panic? Sure, but not sudden starvation. Will there be incredible lifestyle changes? Sure, over the course of a few generations, the same as when big oil became a daily part of our lives.

The doomsayers of Peak Oil hurt their cause more than they help it with this kind of hysteria.