Energy Lessons

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Perhaps there’s something to treadmill wisdom. We’re all so narrow-band these days, using the vast resources of broadband to direct ourselves into a chosen news and ideological tunnel. Polarized pluralism defines us.
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A little history is in order. I lived in Brazil in the 1980s when hyperinflation and debt defaults were the norm. People joked that the only way out was Galeão — Rio de Janeiro’s international airport.
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Now, fast-forward two decades. Foreign reserves hit $195 billion at the end of April. The real keeps rising against the dollar. Growth was 5.4 percent last year and won’t be far short of that in 2008. The main Bovespa index in São Paolo is up about 13 percent in dollar terms this year. Standard & Poor’s just boosted the country’s sovereign debt to investment grade.
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Some 35 years after the first oil shock, Brazil has moved from dependence on imports to self-sufficiency while the United States still relies on imported oil for more than half its needs. In the same period, Brazil has developed the world’s most advanced ethanol program, based on sugar cane, while the U.S. corn ethanol program is essentially a wasteful folly of dubious carbon offset merits.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/05/opinion/05cohen.html?th&emc=th