Geologists have found huge natural gas reserves in shale all over North America–much of it under the feet of Americans. There may be enough natural gas to sate our energy monster’s appetite for as long as 100 years. Fracking is the term created by George P. Mitchell a few years ago naming the process of releasing the gas from the earth. Since Mitchell and his team started using fracking, shale gas has risen from a mere one percent of natural gas supplies in 2000 to 30 percent today. The glut is not over–the percentage will go higher. In the immediate future that would seem to completely solve our stationary energy needs until scientists can develop greener, renewable means of creating power. Fuel for vehicles will take more work. Natural gas burns cleaner than oil and coal. We seem to have tons of it so it should be much cheaper. An additional boon is the creation of jobs. It will take thousands, perhaps millions of people working on American soil to get the gas out of the ground and into homes and businesses. Jobs galore will be created beyond the drilling and refinery work as towns will have to be created or expanded ala Boulder City, Nevada when the Hoover Dam was built. A cleaner, cheaper job creator–what possibly could be the downside? | 
The world’s attention is on Europe, which is financially underwater, but spare a thought for Thailand, which is literally so. Over 500 people are reported to have died in the recent floods, the worst in 50 years. Thailand’s 2012 budget could have been the first salvo in a determined effort to deal with the country’s perennial vulnerability to floods through water management projects with high economic returns. Instead, the budget included several populist handouts that could have been put to better use. The floods covered half the country’s land area, including an estimated 15 percent of the agricultural planted area, and with projected losses of about 6 million tons of milled rice. Some 2.8 million households are reported to have been affected, and about 10,000 factories inundated, leaving over 600,000 people out of work. Corporations such as Apple, Honda, Toyota, and Western Digital have suspended production, affecting their operations as far ... Read More...
