Head in the clouds

If any action shows how out of touch the Government is with the reality of peak oil, it is the decision to build a third runaway at Heathrow. This is despite the warning that we received in the summer of 2008 when oil temporarily rose and gave us a preview of what is to come. People cut back on flying as fuel prices rose and this is what will recur in a few years time.

Clearly this shows that the Government does not accept peak oil and belongs in the flat-earth group of economists. Despite the financial downturn, it clearly believes that, in a few years, things will carry on as before with ridiculous forecasts of growth in flights from 480,000 per year now to 720,000 by 2030. Actually this is not just ridiculous but impossible as John Busby has shown on his website: there is simply not enough oil in the world. That is on top of the fact that the runway will take at least ten years to build and probably a few more on top of that. By that time, oil production will undoubtedly be in decline and the soaring price will put paid to any chances of people flying more.

If this runway is ever built, (and it may be quietly put on hold in a few years as rising prices show the folly of the project), it will become another expensive white elephant like the infamous Millennium Dome. Still, it'll be somewhere to store all those unused airliners.