Seven Elements That Have Changed the World (36 page)

17.
Man-made pollution hangs over a man-made lake. Kunming Lake, Beijing, 2008.

18.
The carbon connection. Henry Ford, the inventor of his generation, flanked by me and his great-grandson, Bill.

19.
Oil collection in the sixteenth century: Agricola’s bituminous spring. From Prince Henry’s copy of
De re metallica.

20.
Exploring oil on stilts: Oily Rocks (Azerbaijan) on a 1971 postage stamp.

21.
A real seascape cut up by an unreal town: Oily Rocks from the air.

22.
The
Exxon Valdez
disaster. Broken up in 2012, the ship no longer exists.

23.
A platform engulfed in flames: Occidental Petroleum’s
Piper Alpha
disaster in the North Sea, 1988.

24.
J.D. Rockefeller keeps an eye on things from the boardroom wall.

25.
From Russia with memory: my farewell to Vladimir Putin, 2007.

26.
Drive-in movie? No such fun. Pumped-up panic in London, 1973.

27.
A war engulfed in flames: burning oil wells in Operation Desert Storm, Kuwait, 1991.

28.
BP + Amoco = Big Player. The birth of a Supermajor in the largest-ever industrial merger, 1998.

29.
BP and PDVSA before Chavez in Venezuela: big negotiations. Big table. Big hair (me on the right-hand side). It was 1980!