CO2 emissions in the United States are at 1992 levels, a twenty year low that is attributable to cheap natural gas replacing the burning of coal at electric power plants. So whatever problems have been associated with 'fracking' at the new Marcellus shale gas wells have been compensated for through lower emissions. Of course coal is still cheap and is exported to other countries where it is burned, but in our own country we have made progress related to global warming. Whether this years nationwide drought is related to the warming atmosphere-which is likely, considering that extremes are one of the consequences of a warmer atmosphere-or whether humanity will ever do anything other than
react to global changes, is still being debated. At any rate like with most things in life people follow their wallets, so when alternative energy sources are cheap enough we use them.
Regarding other sources of hot air, there was a discussion on PBS this morning about Facebook and other social media, and whether or not posting daily minutiae about one's life is simply a form of narcissism. Surely there is some of that, and I have no clue whether anyone reads any of this drivel,so likely I am writing to myself. But I am hesitant to criticize any new media too harshly, because both television and the telephone, and before that the telegraph, were viewed with suspicion when they were first invented. Generally something becomes a problem only when it is not used intelligently, so when balanced by other activities technology can be a positive addition to one's life. The trick is to straddle that line, which is a hard thing for some people.
