Around the world humans have become reliant on oil for so many aspects of their lives.
Many appliances used on a daily basis rely on oil for their manufacture and use. Transport, heat and cooking are all dependent upon oil.
Today, the black slime has become the water of life for the organised technological civilisation the world has become.
On the land, oil has broken the age old bonds between man and horsepower. Mechanisation and machinery require oil to function. Transport too has become entirely dependent upon it. Oil is now a part of international economics and politics and a matter of poverty or wealth, life or death for millions throughout the world.
It has liberated us and shackled us at one and the same time.
'Telefís Scoile: Resources of Man' was broadcast on 25 Novmeber 1974. The presenter is Pádraig Ó Raghallaigh.
