Apocalypse Overture: "Oil's Up? What's the Worst That Can Happen?"

By the mid-twenty-third-century fifteen billion people inhabit Earth. And they are all greedy. The gap between exponential demand for non-sustainable technology and non-renewable resource depletion is hitting crisis point. The competition between the global mega-corporations and cartels is getting increasingly ruthless and violent. Fossil fuels, uranium, raw materials and even food are worth killing for. Lackey governments cannot stop it. They don't want to - it's their riches as well. Bridging the gap is BARC, the vast, global renewable resources and sustainable technology group and a few others. But the gap is becoming untenable. Can a way be found to avoid the crisis before mere savage competition deteriorates into outright worldwide Resource Wars?