The oil in the middle east is the backbone of our society, just about every first world country's backbone, and without it we'd probably bend and break. Oil powers our cars, our houses, gives us heat and cooling. We practically live on oil.
Scientist say that probably by 2050 all the oil will be gone. According to a team of scientist (http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/10/02/global.warming/) a doomsday scenario will occur because of lack of oil, not global warming.