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@ REVIEWS BOOKS Reviewed by Ruth Parnell HALF GONE: Oil, Gas, Hot Air and the Global Energy Crisis by Jeremy Leggett Portobello Books Ltd, UK, 2005 ISBN 1-84627-004-9 (312pp tpb) Availability: Portobello Books, http:/Awww.portobellobooks.com; Penguin Group, http://www.penguin.com.au f the global "topping point" for oil produc- tion hasn't already been reached, it will be by 2010, says Jeremy Leggett. He's a for- mer oil exploration geologist who in 1989 "saw the light", became an environmentalist and joined Greenpeace as its chief scientist. Now he runs his own alternative energy technology company. He says not to expect governments, energy authorities, OPEC or oil companies to warn us about this crisis; they wouldn't want us to panic. Yet that is the likely scenario when the inevitable hap- pens, unless we can immediately curb eco- nomic growth and fast-track the large-scale uptake of renewable energy technologies. Leggett argues in Half Gone that the inevitable shortfall in production, with no significant 100,000-barrel-a-day oil wells going on line until around 2012, will create price shocks, recessions and a stockmarket crash. Informing his argument are the "early topper" statements by fellow geologists and former and current oil industry insiders like analyst Matthew Simmons, Colin Campbell (who founded the Association for the Study of Peak Oil in 2001) and Petroleum Review editor Chris Skrebowski, who has produced his own "peak oil" data. In 2004, Campbell and Skrebowski made a deputation to the British Parliament to warn members about the seriousness of the looming crisis, but to little avail. These "whistleblowers" have come up with production and reserves fig- ures seriously at odds with the grossly over- stated ones released by the oil companies. Compounding the problems of increasing demand and decreasing supplies of oil and gas are the problems associated with the growing trends in global warming and cli- mate change, and Leggett lashes out at the mediocre international efforts to prepare for the "danger threshold". He has an interest- ing take on "how we got into this mess" and some exciting and workable ideas on how we can turn it around for a brighter future. group of 12 families (he calls it "The Syndicate") within the context of a pattern of shadowy interests aimed at undermining nation-state sovereignty, but here he con- cludes that these power plays all boil down to the pursuit of oil, money and power. In his analysis, Hagger looks back on Hitler's Third Reich as a failed one-world revolution, examines the intertwined rela- tionship between Syndicate and Russian interests during the Cold War, and casts doubt on the official 9/11 story. Concerning the latter, he considers the notion that Osama bin Laden had a stolen version of PROMIS software supplied by the Russians, but his communications were being tapped by the Israeli Mossad. He also looks into the suggestion that Saddam Hussein was exploring a deal with al-Qa'ida after all. Hagger is hopeful that the forces wanting to implement global democracy will win out in the end, and believes the United Nations has been sidelined in this quest. We have the choice of two New World Orders, and we'd be advised to go with the less corrupt. THE SYNDICATE: The Story of the Coming World Government by Nicholas Hagger O Books/John Hunt Publishing, Ropley, Hampshire, UK, 2004, www.O-books.net ISBN 1-903816-85-8 (446pp tpb) Availability: Aus‘-—Brumby Books, tel (03) 9761 5535; NZ—Peaceful Living, tel (09) 921 6222; UK—Orca, tel 01202 665432; USA—NBN, tel 1800 462 6420 he origins of our present troubles with globalisation, Middle Eastern conflict and terrorism can be traced to behind-the- scenes influences going back a few cen- turies, and the names Rothschild and Rockefeller are writ large. Nicholas Hagger, a former professor of English and the author of 17 books on history, philosophy and liter- ature including The Secret History of the West (see review in 13/02), has a penchant for research into the so-called New World Order—perhaps the United States of the World, if certain powerful elites have their way. 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