When the last oil well runs dry Just as certain as death and
taxes is the knowledge that we shall one day be forced to learn
to live without oil. Exactly when that day will dawn nobody
knows, but people in middle age today can probably expect to be
here for it. Long before it arrives we shall have had to commit
ourselves to one or more of several possible energy futures. And
the momentous decisions we take in the next few years will
determine whether our heirs thank or curse us for the energy
choices we bequeath to them. There will always be some oil
somewhere, but it may soon cost too much to extract and burn it.
It may be too technically difficult, too expensive compared with
other fuels, or too polluting. An article in Scientific American
in March 1998 by Dr Colin Campbell and Jean Laherrere concluded:
"The world is not running out of oil - at least not yet. "What
our society does face, and soon, is the end of the abundant and
cheap oil on which all industrial nations depend." They
suggested there were per