It all started with katrina some say the hurricane that opened the eyes of the world (read Americans) to the plight of the environment. Most climatologists blamed it on changing weather patterns due to Global Warming. This followed by a report by influential British economist Nicolas Stern, on economics of climate change. Then came the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), a panel of leading world scientists. Their findings convinced them indeed global warming is happening and they released a barrage of statistics spelling doom for the planet.
Alas! Even after numerous studies (I have listed above only 3 studies/events, there have been many more) the world never seriously thought about how as individuals, communities, states the problem should be tackled. Now everybody is heeding to the call of evil harbinger. Nobody other than our beloved traders of commodities, our dear speculators (by the way this can be argued). A barrel of crude has now shot upwards of $140 and is staying there firmly.
Luckily economic recession and high inflation have been bestowed upon us at the same time. Americans have to deal with high unemployment figures and the tough task of electing their new president. EU is reeling under the pressure of rising euro vs. dollar, hurting their exports. Continental Europe anyways was facing lot of unrest due to lack of employment. And then there is the omnipresent terrorist. All this sounds rather gloomy, but as per some recent study the world has never been much happier! (yesterday's TOI).
Given the backdrop, humanity is now finally ready to embrace the green revolution. There are talks of completely getting rid of the carbon cycle! High oil prices have forced the US consumers (maximum per capita consumption of oil in the world) to switch from gas guzzling SUVs to more efficient small cars. In India every now and then I find people seriously discussion the option cycles and junking the concept of automobile.
Alternative fuels are in the news again. Every other week a breakthrough is reported. Last week it was the highly improved solar cell. Week before there was a concept of generating power from ocean waves. Today there is a news item on the new London club, Surya. It is a green club, that is to say it uses solar energy and the 30 million dollar state of the art flooring which generates power when people dance on it!
In India Nuclear deal has never been so hot (no pun intended). Left has been junked. Capitalists are in full force to prove their might at building green organizations. Apparently Wipro is now the only manufacturer of green computers in the World! Organizations are reducing their energy spending by cutting of supply to air conditioning units. Removing power hungry water coolers from pantries and then rationalizing the moves by conducting health seminars in which some whackos proclaim drinking cold water is bad for health. I wonder why they don't remove the ubiquitous smoking zones.
Last not the least air travel is back to normal. Last few years domestic air travel in India had lost its sheen. It became the defacto mode of travel for the junta. Capt. Gopinath and other low cost operators created a ripple which saw 2 iconic mergers (Air-India+Indian Airlines and Jet+Shara). Vijay Mallya put an end to common mans dreams, bought Air Deccan and now the high jet fuel prices have ensured that dreams are only dreams but infusing spirits from United Breweries. Train travel is in fashion once more. (By the way airlines have a huge carbon footprint, rail is much better off).
So think once again is oil price hike so bad? Mother Nature is happy.
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There r e1 talks of oil crisis being the brain child of DubyaMan(read his advisors) to slow down the growth frm future power houses. When its this point, I can not completely rule off this argument.
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