Thanks for the clarification DDT. I am very pleased that we agree on this point.

I totally agree with the idea of gradually raising fuel prices and turning the revenue back into public transport and all sorts of sustainability measures. Very good.

alchemist - That fuel that air travel dumps into the atmosphere is actually one of the things helping to slow the global warming, you may have seen the four courners program on "global dimming".

DDT excellent idea on price hikes, its sad just how often you hear this idea, from disparate people around the place. Just one example of how the "great unwashed" often are more cogent of the problems than the "educated elites". Still this is usually the case only on reletively simple problems such as scientific ones, where there ain't much room for argument. I am sure that everyone agrees (perhaps not about the same ones) that the posts in the forums on social issues are significantly less worth reading. Often totally misinformed etc.

guess thats what post-modernity is about, everyone's veiwpoint is equally valid (I do not agree with this). The reason I mention this now is the difference between peoples knowledge of scientific problems compared with social ones. People can know about science because it is objective (no matter what the sociologist say, it is almost perfectly objective, especially compared to sociology). the social issues everyone goes their own way, even with no education they think thier opinion really counts.

take the war in iraq, citizens actually have next to no say in matters of war, their only say is in electing the war cabinet (this is not so with regard to all areas of policy, education for example would always have a clear community input as evidenced by the p&c (which no parents bother to go to anymore)). The fact that people feel their opinion counts when compared to the thousands of people working together just in australia to assess this issue, shows how ridiculous the 'great unwashed' have become (I consider myself one of these, as I cannot afford a proper education, and the community (you) don't care enough about their kids to ensure I get one).

By disagreeing with the war cabinet on issues of national security people are really disagreeing with how democracy works.

jish. got a bit of track there!

David,

Allow me to correct a glaring factual error - Australia does not have the world's largest reserves of natural gas, and not by a long chalk. Qatar, Russia and Iran all have significantly more gas than we do. Qatar's single giant North Field is several times larger than all of Australia's reserves combined.

We should be concerned that our gas reserves are being developed and exported now at a rate which may see them largely depleted within a very few decades. If oil supply is really in terminal decline (certainly this is possible if not probable), then Gas to Liquids (GTL) technology is currently available and has attractive economics at oil prices above $40/bbl. GTL can deliver what solar, wind, ethanol, hydrogen and nuclear cannot - affordable liquid transport fuel in quantities sufficient to progressively displace oil for long enough to enable an orderly transition to a sustainable energy infrastructure.

Thanks, Philosopher, my error. The offending sentence should read "We have the world's largest reserves of natural gas per capita".

Its great to see so many people getting emotional about this issue. Its going to be CENTRAL to ALL OUR LIVES, and DURING OUR LIFETIMES one way or the other, so at least THINKING about it, and having an opinion, is an essential first step. Doing nothing is just not an option. Nor is leaving it to the government of the day, nor to the oil companies, because neither of them has this as a 'core issue' and neither is prepared to put funding behind it. Write to your MP, state AND federal. Write to your local paper. Get the subject discussed at community level. Change will only come when the market, ie you and me, demands it and FORCES it to be an agenda item. DEMAND clean or renewable energy from ALL your suppliers, be it for transport, commercial/industrial, or domestic use. Nothing else will work unless they (the sellers of fuel and energy) come to the realisation that the customer is going elsewhere to source their energy and fuel from clean, renewable or otherwise sustainable sources. Then, and ONLY then, will they get the message and act. Its up to us to make sure that this happens sooner rather than later....because, by which time, it may well already be too late to prevent the coming trainwreck to the environment AND the economy. Our grandkids wont thank us for sitting around waiting for somebody else to make the first move.

The only problem with GTL, is it's not sustainable, and does have problems with conversion rates. Also it doesn't boost the economy in an environmental or economic way, just keeps us locked into our present reliance. Hoping that they will come up with alternative forms of propulsion, that doesn't use fossil and non polluting fuels, won't happen as long as the control of fuel can be kept in the hands of a few.

Biofuels, give us the opportunity to not only have a very low polluting renewable fuel, that is just as adaptable as fossil oils. It also gives us the chance to increase crop production on marginal land, by growing natives for fuel seed. Bracken has a good oil content as does wattles and other native fast growing plants. Every diesel will run very easily on it converted to biodiesel, with just a couple of modification's, they will run on straight vegetable oil.

Wind, solar, and water energy can overcome our other energy problems, by localising power production. Putting solar and small wind systems on as many buildings as possible and putting the excess back into the grid. This would open up jobs, reduce power bills to everyone and allow us to develop new industries for export, that would be acceptable throughout the world.

It would also allow for more industry to be operated in rural areas as power and fuels would be available at cheaper costs.