The engine
Its a monday and cynicism being what it is, I am pondering a full page ad
in some glossy news magazine by the Shell company.
Shell or more accurately, Royal Dutch
Shell is according to a quote from Fortune “In 2007… the
third-largest corporation in the world, behind Wal-Mart and ExxonMobil.”
So they can throw money around to make things like this.
The messages are interesting at a time of so-called “peak oil”. The
mesaage to the kids - no oil, no trucks, no soft drink - for example, is a
wonderful understatement of the size of the problem, almost to the point
of trivial. Some might argue that the loss of soft drink to the world
would be a community service, but the loss of some other widely
transported goods such as basic food stuffs is another issue entirely.
Still their key message, that technology is giving us breathing space as
we develop alternatives is reassuring, especially given Shell’s investment
in alternatives such as wind and solar. It is easy to imagine a fleet of
large trucks with solar collectors adorning their roof lines and wind
turbines trailing behind connected to high efficiency electric motors
delivering crispy cremes to a store near you.
Are they lying,simply to continue to protect their huge investment and
profits in the oil industry? Do they or anyone else have a secret stashed
away that will enable the world to simply flick a switch and ‘viola’
business as usual? An optimist would believe so, a cynic might just think
they are squeezing everything they can out of this market and they will no
doubt do the same with any new ideas that come along.
Or just maybe, the world is so hooked on oil that there is no magic
bullet. The oil will run out, there will be wars for resources and the
modern age will be yet another golden era that failed the test of
longevity.