Chapter 12: New Uses for Petrochemicals

With the slump in demand for fossil fuel oils, the Middle Eastern nations, which had a huge bank savings from past decades of sale of oil to other countries, started a research project in their deserts.

Bacteria had been found in the fuel tanks of aircraft in WWII, which lived on the gasoline; these bacteria were now utilized and selected to munch oil direct from the oil wells, and convert the material into organics edible by cattle.

Richly supplied by biomaterials, the energy-abundant deserts became new farmlands, and using abundant inexpensive electrical power delivered from the space powerplants, sea water was purified and pumped to water those farms, growing into vast oasis and popular vacation spots, where war had once raged over mere oil.