In a nutshell, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer…..Thomas Jefferson said, “A little revolution now and then is a good thing”. I predict uprisings on a nationwide scale (these are occurring in France, Spain, England, and elsewhere already). Sporadic, yes, violent, maybe.
China and India are becoming the biggest oil guzzlers in the world and are catching up to the USA…..of the 87 million barrels of oil produced daily, the United States consumes approximately 20 million of those DAILY. We have had it too well for too long regarding energy usage (waste) in this country and now that rooster is coming home to roost.
I find it hard to complain when I see the problems in Myanmar, China, Africa, Mexico, Haiti, etc. This is still the best place to live on Earth, but the Earth is shrinking so to speak and our share of the pie will have to shrink too or we may drop the whole dang pie. Resources are finite.
I wish I knew more about solar and wind energy…..trillions of dollars in untapped resources there if we could only make the switch. Why not spend all the Iraq billions on switching to coal-to-liquid fuels or wind power or solar energy….why not drill the heck out of Alaska? I remember when coal was stripped beside my home in the ’70s and ’80s……those hills have been reclaimed and look somewhat better than they did back then.