Americans tuning out the world

Foreigners have long bemoaned the "isolationist" attitude of Americans - over the last several decades, that isolation has deepened. Americans now pay less attention to international affairs, and read less foreign news than at any time in the last two generations. Fewer Americans go overseas or study a foreign language at university. Americans are becoming relatively less - not more - engaged with the world in general.

... since the days of ancient Rome, it is an axiom of political science that economic well-being dulls the appetite of citizens to participate in civil affairs. The implications, however, are disturbing. Can America shape a responsible foreign policy with such an uninformed electorate? The world may be turning into a "global village," but the average American has moved to the suburbs.

- Americans moving out to the suburbs? As Jim Kunstler will tell you, that's exactly what they have done. As far as a peakoiler is concerned, the question inevitably turns up - what is the date of Peak Empire? And what might BRIC have to do with it?

(2005-12-01 17:29:38 SGT) [Musings] Permalink

Failing ocean current raises fears of mini ice age

peakoil.com, slashdot.org -> newscientist.com,
greencarcongress.com, theoildrum.com -> nature.com :

The ocean current that gives western Europe its relatively balmy climate is stuttering, raising fears that it might fail entirely and plunge the continent into a mini ice age. The dramatic finding comes from a study of ocean circulation in the North Atlantic, which found a 30% reduction in the warm currents that carry water north from the Gulf Stream.

Suggestions for blame include the melting of sea ice or increased flow from Siberian rivers into the Arctic. Both would load fresh water into the surface ocean, making it less dense and so preventing it from sinking, which in turn would slow the flow of tropical water from the south. And either could be triggered by man-made climate change. Some climate models predict that global warming could lead to such a shutdown later this century.

The last shutdown, which prompted a temperature drop of 5°C to 10°C in western Europe, was probably at the end of the last ice age, 12,000 years ago. There may also have been a slowing of Atlantic circulation during the Little Ice Age, which lasted sporadically from 1300 to about 1850 and created temperatures low enough to freeze the River Thames in London.

(2005-12-01 12:35:02 SGT) [Env] Permalink Comments [1]

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