It takes individual incidents to capture the complete picture of our cultural dependence on oil. The fuel price protests in 2000 were a brutal demonstration of how, without petrol-driven transport, Britain has few alternatives and will quickly shut up shop.
This addiction has an impact beyond our shores, as Michael Peel’s excellent book on the Nigerian oil delta shows. Peel reveals a country disfigured by oil; one which is preyed upon by foreigners and which in turn preys on its own citizens.
Peel, a correspondent for the Financial Times, examines the historical context and uses evocative reportage to explain Nigeria’s current situation. He doesn’t spare past colonial rulers or present day politicians but is also scathing about well-meaning but ill-thought out efforts by the West to resolve the chronic corruption and instability in the country. A Swamp Full of Dollars leaves tar beneath your fingernails and a bitter taste in your mouth, but if you want to understand the real price we pay for our addiction then it is something you need to read.
A loftier view is taken by Francisco Parra in Oil Politics. The former secretary general of OPEC has 50 years’ experience of the industry and he’s comfortable with the terminology and technology.
First published in 2004 and now re-issued this book should feel somewhat out of date as the fall of Saddam Hussein is still fresh in the author’s mind. But in other ways it is just another oil war. Swap the Exxon Valdez for the Deepwater rig. Different coastline, different year, same old catastrophe. The key dynamics of the oil industry haven’t changed an awful lot; just a new set of faces in the seats at the top table.
For Parra, of course, there is no questioning the need for oil and the wars fought for it are accepted as one of those things. The problem of peak oil is dismissed as a squabble about dates between different organisations with their own agendas. Industry journals have raved about the book’s erudition and the quality of the writing. I guess if you are accustomed to oil company handouts it probably looks like John Grisham in comparison. But I found Parra’s prose rather turgid. Nonetheless, it provides an excellent guide to the make-up of the industry and its various tectonic plates.
Far breezier is Jeff Rubin’s Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller. This is the latest addition to the growing genre of books imagining life after the world’s supply of oil runs out. That’s not in a Mad Max way where we end up praying for Mel Gibson to come out of the desert (or go back, depending on your point of view). Instead it’s about the myriad ways we will need to alter the way we live and work.
The economist, in a cheery style somewhat at odds with the message, dissects how it will mean local, smaller and fewer in the future. There is some succinct analysis of how we ended up in thrall to the black gold and Rubin makes judicious use of statistics without overwhelming the reader – surely a temptation for any economist.
I would have liked to have seen more of the options for after. Rubin says: “How all this will affect our culture is a topic for others to explore in depth, but it is bound to be a radical change.” Well, yes. It will be. Preparation for life in a post fossil fuel world should start now. At the moment movements such as Transition Towns have a lot more to say on the subject than politicians or economists. Rubin gives us a map for where we are heading but now we need a plan for what we do when we get there.
