One of the problems is that there are many people who whine about "green" energy. They don't realize that green fuel for cars, just to name something, is made by burning lots of food that could've been used to feed people. So in the end food prices are now being driven by the demand for oil/gas. Oil and gas are now relying on food prices as well, so they both stimulate eachother to go up. Add speculators and conflicts in the Middle East and you have an explanation for the high prices. Finding a solution is harder than it looks. So far it seems like oil and gas reserves are depleting which means that speculators will speculate on the prices of these resources even more. Finding new resources is being made difficult by various institutions who don't want any people to drill near the north pole. Another problem lies in the distribution of the north pole itself. Canada, the US, Denmark and Russia all claim a part of the north pole. Russia even went as far as to plant a flag of Russia under the north pole.