A contraction in oil and energy supplies might merely mean a change in technology, not an economic disaster. There are those who believe that this new technology may spark an economic boom. Barclays investment bank recently calculated that new technology to reduce fuel consumption, in response to global warming, would produce an economic bonus of $10 trillion through development of new technology (3).

We have been at this moment in history before. In the mid-1980’s the US had developed a whole raft of new energy technologies in response to soaring oil prices. USA had developed the best wind turbines in the world, following an extended research programme by NASA and the US Department of Agriculture. General Electric and Boeing had each created wind turbines 25 years ahead of their time - larger than anything made until the last 2 years. Westinghouse made a wind turbine that was extremely rugged and cost-efficient. The US had developed a new technology of “passive solar heating” - heating homes purely by means of the sunlight entering the windows, without extra energy input. A government programme at Los Alamos over a dozen years had perfected the technology.

In the early 80s, USA led the way in new energy technologies. What went wrong?

What happened was the Iran-Iraq war. Contrived by George Bush Snr and Donald Rumsfeld, this war help artificially drive down world oil prices as the two oil states desperately pushed up exports to pay for arms. As the price of oil dropped, corporate America dropped the new technologies like a stone.

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