If only there was the same rate of tax on petrol - gasoline - in the USA that we have in the UK, half the world problems would be solved.

The non-fossil fuel alternatives would move into the mainstream overnight, and so would the fuel-economy technology; and much of the pressure to expand and preserve oil production would fall away, with the risks to world peace and stability that can involve; and it could save us from a situation where, while overall global warming devastates the world, here in the British Isles we'll have a climate more like Labrador, because the Gildf Stream will have shut down.

But I imagine there'll never be a government in Washington with the nerve to do that, or a voting public with enough love for their children and grandchildren to allow it.