ABSTRACT
Most of the industrial countries were soon on their knees before the Arab world. There was so much concern over the possibility that industry would be brought to a halt that at first the quadrupling of oil prices did not seem so painful; it was seen as a lesser evil. Overnight the supply crisis became a balance of payments crisis. Someone proposed the idea of recycling to combat the problems that would be caused if too many petrodollars poured into the Organization of Petroleum Exporting countries and remained there. The oil importing countries that have been hurt the most are those in developing stages. The crisis that followed the 1973 events highlighted two unpleasant realities that had been lurking in the background for some time but had been generally ignored. The environmentalists who had delayed the construction of a pipeline across Alaska were swept aside. Attention turned to the North Sea.
