No great sheikhs

I visited Saudi Arabia recently as a delegate of the Sports Memorandum of Understanding between Saudi Arabia and Britain.

The excursion was a jamboree of new experiences and cultural revelations but perhaps the most passion-inducing moment was a visit to Saudi Aramco, the world's fourth largest exporter of crude oil.

Now i know energy is a complex issue, and there is more to the debate than simply 'Oil bad, wind turbines good.' Indeed, i didn't expect to change our hospitable and generous host's mind about the value of renewable energy; after all, he was an oil baron.

But what really raised my hackles was the supreme arrogance with which he went about glorifying his trade. During a tour of the Saudi Aramco museum, he told us: "Some say that green energy is the future. I say let it come, it will only make our oil more expensive and our business larger."

I chose not to push him on economic issues, as i don't feel well-versed enough in matters of global trade to agree with his statement or counter it.

But at the end of the tour i expressed my feelings with two very simple questions.
First i asked what his company would do when the oil runs out (for i felt practical concerns are probably closer to his heart than moral ones.)

He replied: "Sure it will run out some day. But at the moment, every time we dig for water in this country we find oil. We're not worried."

Well, bully for them, but what of the moral question? I asked whether he felt somewhat responsible for increasing global levels of pollution and global warming.

Here his (paraphrased) response was more predictable: "Global warming? Where is the evidence? I don't believe it. It's just what politicians want you to think. To keep you scared."

What scares me is that an intelligent man can be so obtuse about what must be recognised as the biggest danger facing humanity. Suddenly, a man who had appeared so powerful, so assured, seemed like a fragile segment of a mendacious veneer displayed by a selfish and avaricious industry.

I'm only slightly ashamed to say i backed down. There's no debating with someone whose agenda is so clearly fixed.

I took the cowardly option instead and refused the Saudi Aramco baseball cap i was offered. Fight the power!