• It covers in limited detail (a) the fossil fuels' depletion problem, as I perceived it three decades ago, (b) the lack of a responsible energy policy from the part of the US Administration, and (c) the plagiarism by Business Week Magazine of my energy article (written in 1979).  That plagiarism has been an important component in my motivation to go ahead with this publishing effort. 
• I am using another website for a future Spanish version ( www.Petroleos.org ). Also these pages have been reflected into www.Qw8.org and www.Q8T.org (Kuwait and Kuwaiti Org).  A few online webs that -if nothing else- help venting this injustice out of my system.
• Please, allow me  -also- to recommend to  you  www.OilDepletion.org, written by Dr.Roger Bentley, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Cybernetics, of the University of Reading, UK.   Dr. Bentley has been part of the University of Reading's 'Oil Group', a group of physicists, engineers and petroleum geologists studying global hydrocarbon resources at the Oil Depletion Analysis Center, London.

NOTE: You could click in underlined words -phrases- to go directly to the page covering that topic.

• PREAMBLE:
• For many years I have been concerned with the fast depletion of fossil oil reserves, not just in the USA but around the globe.
• Four years after my Engineering graduation I wrote an article on this subject. The article was submitted to several major magazines and newspapers.  It was also sent to the White House.
• At the time my findings were innovative, and contradicted the generalized idea that fossil reserves were plentiful.  It was an era when we suffered a terrible oil crisis (1978).   Jimmy Carter was President, and the "crazy" Ayatollah of Iran was looked at as the only culprit for all that pain.
• Saudi Arabians were also being portrayed as "greedy" in about every American newspaper.  The US Congress and the White House agreeing in unison with the press. 
• When I say "every  newspaper"  I am referring to the opinion expressed by -virtually- the whole media, and that includes the Business Week Magazine.

•   A couple of weeks after having received my article, Business Week Magazine published a "Special Issue On Energy" (July 30, 1979).  On it, they were expressing "novel ideas" 180 degrees apart from their previous position on the energy issue, as they had stated the previous month (June 18, 1979).   Yet, they denied having infringed my freelance copyrights.

• Not having copyrighted the article, I lost the plagiarism battle.  Very unfair indeed!  Even without a copyright, it was quite clear that I had submitted those papers, not just to Business Week Magazine, but to several other major magazines and newspapers, even to the White House.
• As my lawyer wrote to them, they had expanded their article using the interesting knowledge points that I had brought up in my inedited article.  Moreover, they did it so carelessly that they even used some of my own phrases and terms.
• The only feedback I received were  "Thanks, but no thanks!" replies from several Editors appreciating the fact that I had sent them an "unsolicited" submission.  That includes the one from the Business Week Magazine's Energy Editor, Carol E. Curtis).
• The fact that I did not have any recognition for these interesting findings had grave repercussions in my professional life.  I had a futile interview with Exxon Corporation a few weeks later in Houston.
• After that injustice, I lost a great deal of my lifelong interest in fossil reserves and related studies.
• Despite that, twelve years later (on March of 1991) I wrote a book on the subject ( "US ENERGY POLICY : S.O.S. -Scared Ostrich Syndrome"), which -unsuccessfully- I tried  to publish at the time.
  • It will soon be published in its entirety on the Internet, at www.DoomedGlobe.com .  Also mirroring this "global-warming warning" website will be www.DontW8.com , www.ElCongresista.US and www.IsIt2L8.com  (read: Is It Too Late?) .

Business Week -in the 1970s- probably never thought that ONE DAY I could find a large forum to vent this injustice (the Internet was yet to be invented) .

So here I am!  The article that I wrote is published -in its entirety- on this website.  I also display all communication I had with Business Week, as well as the correspondence with the firm of Attorneys (CONDON and FORSYTH, Ave. of the Americas, NYC, NY) who took the case on its merits (contingency).

I have included scans with all the evidence: (a) parallelism of knowledge points, (b) paraphrasing of some keywords, and (c) some other peculiar similarities in terminology used.  Please, ponder about the infinitesimal probability that (a), (b) and (c) were result of their "independent study and analysis" as they claimed.

• Have you heard of applying DNA techniques to sexual crimes committed in the 70s and 80s?  All over the world, the police has been able to apprehend quite a few unsuspecting predators who had thought they would never be caught.

I just found out that in the Palm Beach School District we are using a software package that determines if there has been plagiarism of a literary piece.  We did not have that in the 70s.   I am now a Math and Physics Teacher in Palm Beach county. I will be asking my employer to review my article, and then shovel-in the Business Week's "modified copy".  I am hopeful that this "software sieve" -just as a lie detector would do- will be able to determine that such prestigious magazine and their pompous editors are culprits of the lowest-of-the-low mischief of Journalism: stealing an article with no regard for the author rights and no remorse whatsoever.

Why do not forget?  Well, just think of the benefits to our "hooked on oil" society if somebody -with the academic credibility and the proper recognition by energy field experts- had been able to bring a clear message -3 or 4 decades in advance- about future oil scarcity, and about a potential atmospheric catastrophe.

These days, when most people are starting to believe that this "pessimistic current of thought" is correct, ... would not you agree that misappropriating such a visionary article is not just unfair to the Writer, but also very unfair to our society?  Has the sin -from this perspective- been big enough for you to give support to this cause, and bring the culprits to the spotlight?  If you can do something about it, please do!

We are talking here not just of an energy crisis lurking (planning on attacking us in the very near future), but there is also a huge issue of a green Planet in distress, and the waters of the ocean are rising and will be flooding thousands of square miles of lowlands.  Soon our children will be saying goodby to those beaches we all loved and enjoyed. Both crisis are going to affect all of us to some extent, but it is going to be life-and-death reality for many millions of people around the globe.

Is it a crime big enough to shoot the "messenger of doom"?  Somebody with better writing skills -but less scientific brain- successfully "impersonated" this professional, impeding Mr. Xuna from getting the recognition and merited credibility he was entitled to in those days.

As an ostrich, we successfully buried our head in the sand for many decades, but this path will only make matters worse for our children.  Shame on us!

Shame on you, Business Week Magazine!

Being Spanish my vernacular language, my English grammar at the time (and still today) was not Shakespearian by any stretch of the imagination.  But the book's subject matter, and the article's content was extraordinarily timely, and interesting.

Sincerely,

• John ("Juan") Xuna
• Wellington, FL 33414
• (561) 900-0270  , fax: (561) 210-1370
• Xuna@MSN.com

Clarification: Born Modesto J Álvarez Xuna (in Vigo, SPAIN).