How has energy usage effect us before?

Cars uses and used vegetable oil and alcohol to run. Without oil, it is likely that the world would have never experienced the population growth. We would probably be riding horses to get around. But then, our country would have a very unpleasant smell. Cheap energy is one of the reason why modern agriculture has became more and more efficient. Thus, if we use the 19th century farming methods, we would likely result in less than half the amount of food we have today.

Most of the industrial revolution may have never taken place, and World War 1, if it even took place, likely would have been won by the Germans. It was because of oil products, in Texas and California, which fueled the Allied Armies of the World War 1 and 2. The US was once the world's largest oil exporter. One of the reasons why the Germans and Japanese lost was lack of fuel and supplies for their military. The US wouldn’t have gained power, as most of the wealth of the US was built on oil when the United States was the major supplier of oil to the world. If railroads were still powered by steam engines and coal and wood, it is likely that the world would be a much dirtier place (the smoke from the steam engine could cause more pollution), and that deforestation would have created climate change much sooner. The railroads were originally given vast tracts of forest land in order to provide fuel for the trains.