Peak Oil continues to go mainstream

On the front cover of today's SMH: a CSIRO-led study predicting petrol could be at $8 per litre within the next ten years.

This issue will soon become far bigger economically (and so politically, socially, personally and spiritually) than an emissions trading scheme or even the global credit crisis and yet it has received far less attention than either. If you're still new to the term "Peak Oil", then check out this introduction.

Before you start calculating how much it will cost to fill up your car for $8 a litre, or working out how to upgrade to a hybrid, spend a little time thinking what such oil prices could do to the cost of food and hence to the political stability of most developing nations. Think also about the superpowers' efforts to secure supplies from the Middle East.

We need a far bigger solution than cutting taxes by 5c/litre.