The Rise of a New World Order

In an interesting article in The Asian Times, Michael T. Klare highlights five forces merging on the world energy market that will create a "new energy world order." According to Klare:

The combination of rising demand, the emergence of powerful new energy consumers, and the contraction of the global energy supply is demolishing the energy-abundant world we are familiar with and creating in its place a new world order. Think of it as rising powers/shrinking planet.

This new world order will be characterized by fierce international competition for dwindling stocks of oil, natural gas, coal and uranium, as well as by a tidal shift in power and wealth from energy-deficit states like China, Japan and the United States to energy-surplus states like Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. In the process, the lives of everyone will be affected in one way or another - with poor and middle-class consumers in the energy-deficit states experiencing the harshest effects. That's most of us and our children, in case you hadn't quite taken it in.

The five forces Klare sees affecting us are:

• Intense competition between older and newer economic powers for available supplies of energy.
• The insufficiency of primary energy supplies.
• The painfully slow development of energy alternatives.
• A steady migration of power and wealth from energy-deficit to energy-surplus nations.
• A growing risk of conflict.

Klare's conclusion: the most pressing decision facing the next president and Congress may be how best to accelerate the transition from a fossil-fuel-based energy system to a system based on climate-friendly energy alternatives.

References:

• The Rise of a New Energy World Order by Michael T. Klare [Asian Times, April 17, 2008]
• For analysis and discussion on Klare's article refer to The Financial Sense Newshour for April 26, 2008.