When you pump oil, the easy stuff comes out first, after that it gets more like tar. Most fields outside the Middle East are already past their peak. Oil discoveries peaked in the 60s and we've now used about half the worlds oil. World oil production will soon start to decline.

Up until now, higher prices have always been met by more oil pumped. This wont be able to happen for much longer, so prices will continue to rise until people find ways to use less oil. Until then there will be shortages, much higher prices and growing international tension over remaining oil stocks. We are not facing the “end of oil”; it will be around for at least another 50 years. However, we are facing the end of cheap and abundant oil, on which our society has been built.

Solutions to peak oil are also part of the solution to climate change .

Read our energy policy