Problem:
You want to manipulate 6 billion people, for fun and profit.
Solution:
See also: StaticCling, http://penbird.tumblr.com/post/646796550/heres-an-associated-press-article-defending
Didn't the bronze age get started in a place that was running out of flint? Sure, there are other stones (such as malachite, obviously), but flint is the easiest to make tools from. The fossil fuel age will not end because we run out of fossil fuels, but we might run out of cheap oil, and be down to coal and expensive oil. Also, didn't the iron age get started in a place that was running out of tin?
No. The iron age got started where a meteor hit and revealed that iron ore could be smelted to make a better metal than anyone had ever seen before.
[I hope that these last two comments were just people trying (and failing) to be funny.]