The global economy of the 19705 was impacted by the shock of an event which concerned the production of and trade with an energy resource. The rich oil-prodUcing countries of the Near-East threatened to cut off supplies of this elixir of life for the advanced industrial nations in the West, whose economies were (and still are) geared to growth-at-all-costs. Instantly, it became absolutely clear that this most important foundation for continuing expansion of the material and social wealth of the ‘have’ nations was not an unlimited resource, but finite and, moreover, the quantities required by the consumer nations rendered them extremely vulnerable to manipulation. It was not internal industrial strife in the form of strikes that stopped the wheels turning but a chain of boycotts by the oil producers, engineered bogus shortages, and price increases. This resulted in the consumers in the commodity paradises being hit in one of their most sensitive spots: their hitherto unlimited personal auto-mobility. What the obvious alarm signals of acid rain, death of the forests, the ongoing destruction of the natural environment, and the growing lobby of the ‘Green’ movements had signally failed to bring about, was effected by a severe disruption of the economy: temporarily, motorways became pedestrian precincts, for a brief period, towns and cities were car-free, and the ‘free citizens’ moved freely about- in neutral.

The consequences in the energy sector alone indicated the underlying contradictions. Growing public awareness that fossil energy resources were limited and that it was necessary to restrict exploitation of this natural wealth, together with increasing efforts on the part of the grass-roots ecological movement to find and propagate alternative, renewable energy sources, clashed with authoritarian state industrial interests in developing nuclear power, the production of which was predicated on advanced technology and management, both political and administrative, that was hermetically sealed off against any type of fundamental fault or breakdown. Whether there would be sufficient demand to justify creating the prerequisites for producing this type of energy, was a matter of relative indifference. What did matter was to set up this new branch of industry which would then develop a momentum of its own; the possibility of it getting out of hand was inherent, whether by chance or design.