Australian fears of greenhouse warming are naturally pumped by drought, and Ross Garnaut’s report has made them much more anxious about their reliance on using (and exporting) fossil fuels. Though they too will be affected if ‘green mile’ food boycotts take off in major markets, that has been secondary concern.

An item on news.com.au last Thursday colourfully highlighted another risk.

“An overseas trip might become a once-in-a-lifetime experience rather than an annual event,”  said Dr Patrick Moriarty of Monash University’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. The report seemed to show the usual academic lust to force people from private to public transport but did not indicate whether rationing us into one trip per lifetime will be by permit, or by price (where the once in a lifetime figure becomes an average).

The academics’ paper to be published in Energy Policy might deal with such details.

If Islam wins Huntington’s culture wars at least there’ll be no debate about where to take that trip. The grand tour will have to include Mecca.

For decades investment in tourism (companies like THL) has never lived up to promise. But think of the property value carnage in our holiday commute centres like Queenstown if the Sam Neills were rationed into one visit in a lifetime to their fly-in homes.