A Blessing in Disguise: How resource poverty has prepared Europe
for peak oil The world faces a difficult contradiction today. On
the one hand we can rejoice in the economic growth emerging
countries that is lifting millions out of poverty. On the other,
as the scientific evidence for global warming mounts and oil
prices are pushed past $100 a barrel, we have to recognize that
this growth will make our environmental problems exponentially
more difficult to tackle. The European Union’s official roadmap
for resource efficiency makes for some fairly dismal reading in
this regard: Over the 20th century, the world increased its
fossil fuel use by a factor of 12, whilst extracting 34 times
more material resources. […] If we carry on using resources at
the current rate, by 2050 we will need, on aggregate, the
equivalent of more than two planets to sustain us, and the
aspirations of many for a better quality of life will not be
achieved. While it uncertain if the E.U.’s ambitions in this
area bear fruit, it is alread