Example: less/fewer = fewer can be counted, less can't; so, fewer students, fewer emails but less petrol, less sand.
It included heaps of sand, ladders, rusting petrol barrels and a giant painted breezeblock panda head with vacant black pools for eyes – what Griffiths calls his "Croydon Jeff Koons".
Given that (a) this future world consists largely of sand, and (b) petrol is in short supply, it's odd that the populace should be so devoted to the internal combustion engine, but Miller's franchise was always absurd.
For one thing, clean energy is not the only sort of "alternative" energy that is enjoying a boom: dirty technologies like Canada's mucky tar sands (from which petrol can be made at great environmental expense) are also benefiting from high oil prices.
That has implications for "unconventional oil"—petrol made from oil shale and tar sands.
While the US has, at least so far, resisted a complete dependency on Albertan sand oil, this environmentally disastrous from of petrol is widening its share of the global market.
Canadian oil is also reaching European markets: the new Greenpeace report revealed that Albertan tar sands oil has been indirectly entering the EU's petrol supply unbeknown to consumers, and indicated that this is likely to become more widespread.
The movable bear comes in toasty tones of brown, sand and tan, as well as earthy shades: moss and stone gray — and a hue called Petrol, a muted cerulean.
The best example is Canada's tar sands, mucky hydrocarbons that are much more difficult, expensive and environmentally damaging to convert into petrol than ordinary oil deposits.
