Michael Klare

Don’t for a sec­ond imag­ine we’re head­ing for an era of re­new­able en­er­gy.

Cli­mate change will wreak its hav­oc on us by con­strain­ing our ac­cess to the ba­sics of life: vi­tal re­sources like food.

En­er­gy in­dus­try’s abil­i­ty to boost pro­duc­tion of oil, coal and gas is en­sur­ing ever high­er lev­els of car­bon emis­sions.

Out­put from un­con­ven­tion­al oil op­er­a­tions may show some growth ahead, but there is no “gold­en age” on the hori­zon.

Ris­ing food prices due to drought may again lead to so­cial un­rest and vi­o­lent con­flict.

Ten­sions are ris­ing at po­ten­tial flash­points, as new bot­tle­necks for the flow of en­er­gy are iden­ti­fied.

Oba­ma says US in­flu­ence will turn from the Mid­dle East to­wards the “vast po­ten­tial of the Asia-Pa­cif­ic re­gion”.