An important United Nations environmental conference went past 6:00 in the evening when the interpreters' contracted working conditions said they could leave. They left, abandoning the delegates unable to talk to each other in their native languages. The French head of the committee, who had insisted on speaking only in French throughout the week suddenly demonstrated the ability to speak excellent English with English-speaking delegates.

Council on Foreign Relations Press 2001. An essay that Yergin publiDaniel Yergind on the peak oil controversy in the Wall Street Journal aroused further criticism from the peak oil community. 1982 ISBN 0-394-71063-0; Random House new revised 3rd ed.

Yergin is the co-founder and chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates an energy research consultancy that is now part of IHS Inc. Daniel Howard Yergin (born February 6 1947) is a Pulitzer Prize winning American author speaker and economic researcher.