Soaring crude oil prices have had a domino effect on virtually every commodity, pushing them to an all time high. Working class people are feeling the pinch, with many adopting austerity measures.

Higher oil prices are to be expected in the long term and individuals have to be prepared to pay more for the costs that results from it. We simply can't run away from that fact.

The solution however, is not to organise consumer demos or demand tax breaks to maintain the status quo, but to scale down our consumption and think about post-oil technologies. Yes, post oil because "black gold" is finite and someday we'll have to do without it.

But amidst the dark clouds of rising crude oil prices, there is a silver lining. It so happens in life that every negative event has a positive twist about it.

The oil crisis is bringing home a fundamental truth, the kind that politicians of every hue don't want you to hear: crude oil is finite. As more people enter the high consumption bracket, there is going to be growing pressure on these resources. The emergence of China and India as major consumers of oil, however, has thrust the oil threshold upon us sooner than we expected.

One of the immediate beneficiaries are the poor farmers who will be able to bargain for better prices as the government stocks up to avert a food crisis in the country. This might be at the expense of the urban poor, some of whom spend more than half their monthly income on food.

In the medium to long term, there is no more powerful way to spur conservation and innovation than high fuel prices. And this is not just for policy makers but also for ordinary men and women who because of their vulnerability suffer the consequences most.

One of the things we are bad at in this country is conservation. Whenever we feel there is a lot of anything we waste it.

The current inflation has forced families to rethink their consumption patterns. Households are using far less of utilities than they used to a year ago. But conservation, great as it is, can only be dependent on availability of resources, which leads us to innovation.

Some of the greatest ideas that have revolutionized human life were borne out of extreme difficulties and calamities.

The public and private sector must now invest in post-oil technologies. This is urgent if we must prevent civilization from collapsing under the weight of our greed and fear of change.

Gori is a public relations practitioner.