Another article in the press this week suggests that we face peak oil imminently (we say another article because various academics have been reporting this fact periodically over the past few years). In any event, whether peak oil (the point at which growth in supply is less than the growth in demand) occurred this week, last month or last year, the point is we have, or are about to, reach a turning point and something ought to be done. Ten years ago most of the oil majors invested in green technologies, and now almost all of them have sold them. This suggests that they have looked at the alternatives and it is unlikely that the alternatives will compete with oil. Governments have been reluctant to look at this in any depth because they believe that world markets will sort this out. Many academics predicting peak oil suggest that there will be cataclysmic repercussions. The biggest being a global depression which is oil led. In reality the human race is best at adaption, it is more likely that the technology will change and the efficiencies we currently have will improve. We will no longer want our cars made from plastics but more from recycled cardboard, and waste rubber. At the moment this is expensive, but imagine if oil prices were at $400/tonne, this would make plastics costs extremely expensive and perhaps drive money towards the recycling alternative. Basics economics suggests that there will always be substitute goods, the difficult question is at what price will they start to become real competition to oil.