The United States is on the verge of an industrial renaissance, according to energy experts enthusiastic about technological advances surrounding the “fracking” of shale gas and the processing of “tight oil.” America is sitting on a century-worth of natural gas, and the Western hemisphere boasts five times the reserves in unconventional oil as the Middle East claims in the conventional category. Suddenly, all our fears of resource wars with China and never-ending quagmires in Southwest Asia seem to melt away, heralding with great certainty another American century based on the promise of energy independence. As “deus ex machina” moments go, [...]
Will the Kyoto Protocol survive? Should climate change be a religious issue? Are wealthy nations delivering on financial promises to help the developing world promote positive environmental change? Such big questions dominated the collective mindset of thousands of delegates converging on Durban, South Africa, from across the globe this week for the U.N.’s 17th annual global climate change talks. But, according to Jon A. Weiss, a U.S.-based climate change policy analyst and founder of the soon to launch nonprofit Lake Climate Group, it’s unlikely many certain answers will emerge by the conference’s close on Dec. 9. Most likely, Weiss told [...]
