American Values

One of America's national myths is that our can-do attitude combined with practical innovation will solve any problem. The reality is somewhat different. In many ways we are afraid of change and will do just about anything to avoid it. Look how much money corporations spend influencing anything that affects profits and you will see exactly what what I mean.

Meanwhile China finds opportunity in meeting the challenges of climate change.

...China has also begun to see energy efficiency and renewable energy as ingredients for the type of modern economy it wants to build, in part because it would make the nation's energy sources more secure.

"We think this is a new business for us, not a burden,"

Americans once thought this way. Our myth may not have been an actual universal truth but there was something to it. These days American enterprise is less willing to take risks, to explore new technologies. All that may not produce a good earnings report next quarter. The stockholders will not be pleased.

Future generations will not be pleased when they see the world we leave them with our resistance to alternate energy technologies. Maybe the Chinese, who have a lot at risk, will change that. It would be a good use of all that money they are piling up.