Sometimes the hardest part of the journey is the descent.

As the world comes to the realisation that the global supply of oil is on a downward trend, the population will have to adapt to a changing context in which to live their lives. If the current rate of increase in the price of oil isn’t dramatically slowed, there might not be enough time to adapt.

I stress the word “might” because of recent advances in alternative fuels; things like new fast charge and release high capacity Lithium Ion batteries for electric cars, or Bio-Oil produced by genetically modified photosynthesising algae.

Increasing demand for oil in developing countries such as India and China are arguably the main cause of the spike in price, rather than market speculation as some suggest. This demand in a climate of stagnating supply is the key determining factor of price rises.

Therefore whatever solutions come about to shake our dependency on at least the finite fossil crude we pump out of the ground will have to meet these demands in order to maintain peace.

Many of the world’s cities, and many countries like Australia and the United States are built on the assumption that we will always have energy to run our trucks, cars, planes and ships. They are sprawling and lack the infrastructure to move people around, let alone cargo and produce without a cheap fuel source.

We face some great challenges in the coming decades. Our current existence, our comforts and norms are made fragile by our globalised world. The decisions made by those in power and everyone else will determine what the world will look like after we descend from peak oil, at the bottom of Mount Crude.