Well, that has already happened, many times over. When I first started driving 17 years ago petrol in Australia was AU$0.64 a litre, LPG was AU$0.27 a litre. Now, here in Tasmania, we're paying AU$160.5 a litre for petrol AU$0.95 a litre for LPG.

Electricity has about doubled in price since I first started paying my own bills.

This has has precisely little, if any, impact on how much people drive and how much electricity they use. Vehicles become more efficient, people install reverse cycle air cons, wages rise.

Now, I'm not suggesting this can go on forever, it likely can't, but we have been told to panic about Peak Oil for a good 40 years, and is still hasn't happened. I'm not sure feeling anxious about Peak Oil is going to help. If anything, it tends to make a lot of people, especially young people I talk to, apathetic about the world.

What will happened after we run out of oil and coal? Or after we burn enough of it to make this planet unpleasant to live on? We will adapt or die. Let's hope we adapt before that happens. I'm not convinced that's going to happen, people seem to be attracted to crises - they're a damn good motivator.