Cornucopia

by John Francis Kinsella

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  Francis always pointed to the nature of the world’s top thirty businesses; to those who cared to heed his words. Apart from number one, Walmart, twelve were oil companies, five built automobiles, and even Walmart was a major gasoline retailer.

  In short, the world ran on oil, a fact that should have put the agreement made at the world conference on climate change in Paris, COP21, into perspective.

  John Francis marvelled at the naivety of transient politicians, ecologists and commentators. It would take more than a few declarations of good intention to stop the big oil juggernaut. If oil powered the planet then money money greased its wheels. Trillions of dollars ensured the continuity of oil as long as it could be pumped from the ground or the sea.

  Never in human history had such a cheap easily accessible form of energy existed. Each barrel of oil was the equivalent of eight years human labour. It was an easily transportable commodity, stockable and safe to use, providing a minimum of precautions were taken. Oil put the equivalent of approximately one hundred and fifty Roman slaves at the disposition of each Western consumer, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week and three hundred and sixty five days a year, year in year out.