
Driving Forces 129
However, the theory also has many opponents. Listening to some
representatives of the oil industry or of the US Geological Survey,
you could easily get the impression that there must be an unending
supply of oil and natural gas. As far as the IEA in Paris is concerned,
we have recently seen a shift in position. Once an advocate of almost
unlimited fossil resources, more recently it has joined the swelling
tide alarmed by the prospect that all of the world’s hydrocarbon
resources might be exhausted 50 years from now—oil a bit earlier;
natural gas a little later. Only coal seems to be in sufficient quantities
to last well into the next ...