Oil. It’s a nasty business and has been for at least the last 130 years, as modern life came to be almost wholly dependent on petroleum products. It is an incredibly lucrative business for the millions of people who prospect for it, extract it and sell it; for those who run countries that possess it; and for those whose pensions depend on the continued profitability of the big oil companies. Oil has also spawned many ancillary markets, not least the writing of books criticising its nefarious impact on governance and the poor, honest people of the world. There is money to be made in these books, as Naomi Klein’s sales figures show. That has to be a primary reason that a major trade publisher like The Bodley Head decided to bring out this overly dense, often incomprehensible effort by Greg Muttitt.

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