Although most Americans don't know it, the U.S. gets more oil from Canada than it does from the entire Middle East.
From Jeff Goodell
Extracting oil from the tar sands is a nasty, polluting, energy-intensive business.
In the U.S. alone, weather disasters caused $50 billion in economic damages in 2010.
Subsidies are hugely important; they represent America's de facto energy policy.
If you think Wall Street firms have it good, you haven't looked closely at Big Oil.
The biggest tab the public picks up for fossil fuels has to do with what economists call 'external costs,' like the health effects of air and water pollution.
So if you want to know how Exxon Mobil can make $10 billion profit in 90 days, just look around. The whole world was built for them.
Climate change is a global issue - from the point of view of the Earth's climate, a molecule of CO2 emitted in Bejing is the same as a molecule emitted in Sydney.
The coal industry is an even larger part of the Australian economy than it is of the American, and it has an enormous amount of political power.
The floods and fires and storms and droughts that Australia has suffered in the last few years have left no doubt in many Australians' minds about just how much is a stake in a super-heated world.
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