In The Independent (20/01/06) the energy expert Jeremy Leggett provides a convincing and well supported argument that the World is facing an energy crisis on an unprecedented scale. The Western way of life as characterised by the US and Europe, which it seems everyone else wants a piece of, is so dependent on fossil fuels that a significant (or in my opinion a major) part of economic functioning is destined to collapse.

Leggett titles his piece What they don’t want you to know about the coming oil crisis but whether ‘they’ want us to know or not it is going to happen and we all need to be prepared. Changing our lifestyles now, if we all did so, may help to conserve resources for vital services and it would also help to stem the amount of carbon going into the atmosphere and reduce the strain on Gaia. The solution is a simple one: stop using energy. However, in practical terms this means a complete revolution in the way we live. If we don’t do so and our children suffer and die then it will be entirely our fault. Think about it.