30 May

In a time of rising prices of electricity, water and petrol, I hear politicians talk about the “cost of living pressures”.

Yet I hear no talk about the big game changer coming around the corner.

That game changer may be a turning point for all of us, and is summed up by the phrase “peak oil”.

Forget the banter about climate change and carbon tax.  The historical moment of peak oil is nearly upon us.

Technically, peak oil is the point at which we have extracted half of the oil that has ever existed, the high quality half that was cheap and easy to find, and easy to refine.

Beyond peak oil, it may cost the energy equivalent of two barrels of oil to get the one.

A majority of experts do not put peak oil too far away at all.  Paul Roberts in “The End of Oil” pointed out that oil pessimists nominated 2010 as a likely date.

Oil optimists don’t put peak oil far beyond that.  A 2004 report by the usually up-beat US Department of Energy noted that none of the predictions of experts go beyond 2020.

Peak oil is more than a technical and economic turning point: it is a point where we have to change our personal behaviours and lifestyle.

For me personally, I have started the process of changing my behaviour.  During March I promoted National Bike Week by attempting to cycle to work each day.

My own process of change started when I was an impoverished university student and could not afford a car.  My bike-riding ways returned when I could not drive as I had accumulated too many demerit points.

This was a sudden event, my own “peak oil crisis” that could have pushed me into anger and despair.  But I decided to use it as an opportunity to change my ways on a permanent basis.

What I have found is that we are quite able to reduce car usage.  It can be a pain, but it is surprisingly achievable.

I found planning ahead was crucial.  Do not just wake up in the morning and look at diary to see what is happening.

Arrange meetings for convenient times and locations, and put a time aside to do all your “run-around” chores at one time.

When you rely on a car, you get used to simply hopping in and charging off.  You don't need to plan ahead.  Freedom and acting on impulse are the deep psychological joys of driving a car.

I am certainly not perfect in my car use, but my behaviour change will keep happening.  Now I have the added impetus of a new-born son.

I know my son will not enjoy what we assume is a birth right of a modern Australian.  That is the right to have a car and drive wherever he pleases.

Instead, I may have to explain why his father and grandfather’s generations used all this marvellous geological endowment of oil, and left none for him.