Green Daily

The primary source of man-made greenhouse gases in the US (about 82% ) is the burning of fossil fuels for energy. And as anyone who's recently picked up a newspaper or driven by a gas station knows, oil and gas aren't getting any cheaper.

Peak oil? Maybe,maybe not, but most experts agree that the price run-up reflects a genuine supply and demand imbalance, and it looks more and more as though there isn't a lot of new supply out there waiting to be found, notwithstanding Lost Dutchman myths of vast oil fields yet untapped. Meanwhile, as China and India industrialize, 3 billion people are coveting new cars and air conditioners, amplifying the impact of a plateauing supply. The age of cheap oil is over.

To make matters worse, especially for Americans, there's the real risk of imminent financial meltdown, which we've thus far managed to evade in spite of the ongoing sub-prime crisis and a US national debt of about $9.5 trillion. As the debt grows, foreign governments (who currently hold about 25% of US debt in the form of bonds and treasury bills etc.) become increasingly leery of hanging onto US dollar debt, for the valid reason that they may never get paid back. When that happens, they sell their holdings, which among other things drives down down the value of the US dollar further and makes everything imported into the US - including oil - more expensive.

That means inflation, reduced consumer spending, job losses and a variety of other unpleasantness that have nothing to do with global warming, but lots to do with fossil fuels.

So what's the answer? Well, fortunately, the same measures being urged to fight climate change - a shift from oil consumption to conservation and green energy development - are precisely what's needed to save the world economy from a financial crisis of disastrous proportions. Michael Novogratz, President of the Fortress Investment Group and a man worth about $1.5 billion, told Wired recently that he sees green tech as the growth opportunity that must replace the busted high tech and housing bubbles and keep the economy moving forward.

This is the trifecta of meta-crisis solutions - if we act fast enough, sound investment in conservation and clean, renewable, sustainable sources of energy can mitigate climate change, keep the global economy humming, and provide us a soft landing as we shift out of our oil dependency. So why wouldn't we do it?

The problems are the usual ones - time and money. The more of each we spend on searching for dirty,expensive, difficult to drill oil, the fewer resources we have to design and build the new infrastructure we'll need to power tomorrow's world. The longer we keep our heads stuck in the sand and ignore the need to conserve, the less likely we can effect a relatively painless transition from fossil energy to wind, solar, hydrogen, and whatever else our fertile minds can come up with over the next few years.

Whether we choose to change or not, to commit to new energy sources or not, the next few decades will not be more of the same. Even if the North Pole doesn't melt, a fossil fuel burning future is looking pretty bleak.