“Political systems do not deal easily with long term threats, even if they have a probability of 100%,” Schlesinger warned.
His message was clear: economic horror will descend on the world if we do not plan ahead, and the time to start is now. We are asleep at the wheel, like the citizens of Pompeii and Herculaneum were, looking up at their volcano and thinking that its dormant state would be destiny. They ignored the rumbles, and ended up buried under ten metres of ash.
Mr Schlesinger threw a barb at the detractors he knew would follow him at the podium. Most people, and all governments, are in denial, he intimated. “Every time someone says the peak is far off, there is an audible sigh of relief.”
He cited Daniel Yergin, the chairman of the influential oil industry consultancy Cambridge Energy Research Associates. “When Daniel Yergin said the peak wouldn’t be until 2020 in a recent report, it was greeted with elation,” Mr Schlesinger said.
This is what people in denial want to hear, Mr Schlesinger implied, and people like Mr Yergin are happy to say it.
[Link -> http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,11319,1636920,00.html]