Sadly the Australian govt (past and probably present) has dropped the ball on this. I think Peak Oil is as great a threat to civilsation as climate change. In fact, Peak Oil, by bringing about the literal end of life as we know it will probably save the planet from climate change. A silver lining in every cloud eh?

Imagine no trucks arriving at your nearest supermarket with fresh food deliveries. The result? Starvation on a mass scale in the cities as people run out of food. Mass exodus to the countryside of people looking for food. The break down of law and order, work and social life. Really it is just too dark to even comprehend. Fuel (petrol) is an essential part of every aspect of our way of life, we are a society founded upon hydrocarbons.

When it runs out (and it is soon) we better have comoe up with some solution or we are all in serious trouble.

"Really it is just too dark to even comprehend" - I believe that's why most people, especially those in power, don't want to comprehend it. I commonly hear responses to Peak Oil along either one or both of the following lines:-

"They've been saying for years that oil would run out, and it hasn't yet". Two problems with this. Who are "they"? And where are these erroneous forecasts? Are "they" the same people who are telling us there's a real problem on our doorstep now?

"Even if we run out of oil, they'll find a new source of energy, such as <insert technomiracle solution here>". Again its the anonymous "they", but this time they'll be our saviours, coming up with a solution while we keep living our lives as usual. We've built our civilisation on oil. There are no other abundant, concentrated liquid fuel supplies to replace it.

As a community we either deride the people who bring us uncomfortable news, or trust in someone else to save us while we go about business as usual. Politicians may individually realise how scary PO is, but those in power just don't have the guts to show any real leadership & start preparing us for a softer transition to a low energy future.

Every day we spend doing nothing is a step towards a darker future reality.

For more interesting reading on this subject: http://www.theupsideofdown.com/

Good read. :)

There is plenty of coal and oil-shale to keep our cars on the road. It will just get more expensive, that's all. If we can afford beer at $15 per litre as it is in many pubs now, who cares if petrol goes up in price? We just drink less beer and smoke fewer cigarettes, and maybe buy a bicycle, and grow vegies in our back garden and sell them to our neigbours on the other side of our razor wire fence. Life will certainly get tougher and the haves will do anything to maintain their priviliged position. But eventually Nature will sort us out.

The tradgedy is that viable alternatives are emerging NOW. Electric bikes and trikes are selling exponentially in Asia. Australia could be world leaders...but we don't support new tech, just old tech like coal and old models such as central power generation.
Electric is superiour in many ways except power density and storage efficiency. That is changing fast and with a little vision we could be world leaders. Alas, we all know that Australia chews up and spits out real technical leadership, and protects the old assets at any cost. Bloody crooks are running Victoria...

Regarding this article and several of the comments, the only real solution to the Peak Oil crisis is conservation. There are no real alternatives to oil and natural gas. Coal is peaking globally and oil shale consumes as much energy as it delivers. Solar and wind only yield electric power, which is not very useful for transportation, planting and harvesting, and fertilizer/pesticides etc. See a comprehensive report on this at: http://www.peakoilassociates.com/POAnalysis.html

Also see the 5 articles by Chris Shaw posted on ONLINEOPINION.COM at: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3837