The 8008 1779

We were talking about greenhouse gas levels, which is related to energy consumption, which includes energy used in production.

Reduction of energy consumption does not neccessarily involve decreasing production, driving smaller cars would be a start, so would reducing winter house temperatures a couple of degrees and wearing slightly heavier indoor clothes. Rising oil prices may well address that issue.

Usage is an aggregate of usage by individuals. High individual consumption, as in the US, leads to a high total.

What worries me most, is that as the economies of countries like India and China grow, the people there will demand a higher standard of living, approaching US levels, and this will hugely increase energy demands, and therefore pollution. Again, the energy market will adjust prices, and dampen demand, but unless Americans are willing to make some sacrifices, along with other countries, the future looks bad.

Well, I don't need a job any more :-) One thing we do very well here is to grow food, and we don't need the US for that.

If you are talking about US industrial producton, as opposed to agricultural, isn't that declining with the growth of far-eastern industrial economies? Production migrates to the cheapest and least regulated places. It doesn't matter to me where my next tv set was made - I'll buy quality at the best price. My US-designed iPod was made in China.

What will the US do as decreasing production and steady or increasing consumption increase debt, turn others off the US$ as a reserve and trading currency, thus ending what is, in efect, a huge loan to the US through Dollar holdings?

-- brian

-- "What's life? Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh."