‘Capitalism is torpedoing our prosperity, killing our economies, threatening our children. It must be re-engineered, root and branch.’
In The Energy of Nations: Risk Blindness and the Road to Renaissance, Dr Jeremy Leggett a former oil geologist and government adviser on renewable energy warns of the risk of an imminent global oil crash as early as next year, and no later than 2020.
In my first post on Leggett’s new book, I focused on his analysis of our "risk blindness." But despite his trenchant and uncompromising stance on the potentially catastrophic consequences of business as usual, Leggett is no doomer.
"The incumbency, with their ‘new era of fossil fuels’, will have suffered a setback as a result of the oil crisis, not a rout. They, like the investment bankers before them, will soon be arguing that the time for remorse is over. They will argue that all forms of national or regional carbon fuel resource must now be mobilised as fast as possible."
"First, the readiness of clean energy for explosive growth. Second, the intrinsic pro-social attributes of clean energy. Third, the increasing evidence of people power in the world. Fourth, the pro-social tendencies in the human mind. Fifth, the power of context that leaders will be operating in after the oil crash."
"The next crash will lay bare all the incumbency’s illusions about a new era of fossil fuels and of a wealth-creating financial system in need of only light-touch regulation. They will have left themselves at the mercy of a society that will be looking back in anger, and a political class that will feel impelled, given the state of their streets, to project the will of the people. Society will be being swept with a realisation that energy needs must be met in large measure at home, as fast as possible, and in a climate wherein modern financial institutions cannot in general be trusted with either individuals’ money or the provision of financial services to viable economies."
"Modern capitalism’s worst-ever crash may prove to be a cloud drifting across human history that has a very big silver lining indeed."