EARTH: Highlights of 2011 -- energy and economics 2011-2012

Is the United States entering its "Lost Decade"? A crunch on natural resources coupled with a crippling economic crisis and an aging workforce threaten to hurl us into a decade—or more—of grudgingly slow development akin to that of the Japanese after their own real estate bust a few decades ago. Will the United States learn from past mistakes in order to reconcile economic growth with environmental safety? In the December issue of EARTH Magazine, learn how the facts and the fallacies measure up to the increasing challenges facing the United States in 2012 and beyond.

Misconceptions such as the price of oil significantly dropping in the future, and that practice of hydrofracking is inherently bad while natural gas from shale is a gift from above limit the United States' capacity to fight the oncoming challenges of the future. In 2012, the concept of limited natural resources and how they influence the United States should be a focus of debt and fiscal debates.

Will absolute growth cease in a finite world as environmental limitations outpace adjustments in efficiency? Or will increasingly advanced technologies afford us new and efficient ways to adjust so that we never run short of the energy we need? For more information on the featured story, visit http://www.earthmagazine.org/earth/article/5ca-7db-b-12.

Provided by American Geological Institute