last updated 28th April 05
by 4ecotips.com

A new order is on its way

In the year since this book appeared in hardback, writes P D Smith in The Guardian, oil prices have risen from $30 to $50 a barrel. Paul Roberts could rightly say “I told you so.” He argues convincingly that the world is on the brink of a revolution: “The current energy economy is on its way out.” Roberts tells how history of our energy-dependency and predicts the shape of the new energy order, from hybrid power systems to hydrogen fuel cells.

He has harsh words for his fellow Americans, “the most profligate users of energy in the history of the world”. With less than 5% of the world’s population, America burns 25% of the planet’s energy. For Roberts, the answer is not “to wait for the technology of tomorrow” but to conserve what we have: “Efficiency remains out greatest hope.” From global warming to the “continuing fiasco in Iraq”, he shows why the future of oil matters. So buy those energy saving bulbs now!

The End of Oil: The Decline of the Petroleum Economy and the Rise of a New Energy Order by Paul Roberts (Bloomsbury £8.99)