Running on Empty - Jeremy Leggett

Jeremy Leggett explains how a bid to defuse the coming global peak-oil crisis was sidelined

"Political systems do not deal easily with long term threats, even if they have a probability of 100%," Schlesinger warned.

"His message was clear: economic horror will descend on the world if we do not plan ahead, and the time to start is now. We are asleep at the wheel, like the citizens of Pompeii and Herculaneum were, looking up at their volcano and thinking that its dormant state would be destiny. They ignored the rumbles, and ended up buried under ten metres of ash."

Excerpts from: Running on Empty - Jeremy Leggett

Published in The Guardian - Nov 8, 2005

Jeremy Leggett's book on peak oil, Half Gone: Oil, Gas, Hot Air and the Global Energy Crisis, is published this week by Portobello Books.