November 2004 saw a new scientific report drawing a stronger than ever link between fossil fuel consumption and global climate change. Policy makers and local organizations like Green Energy Ohio are looking to secure a future with cleaner energy from renewable resources.

The world has not yet reached 'peak oil', or the point where global supply peaks and begins to decline while demand continues to rise. But, progressive world leaders are moving to address the links between energy use, emissions, and climate change with the Kyoto Accords (even if critics in the U.S. Senate say it's a symbolic gesture) and anticipate economies without dependence on oil. Even BP is hedging its bets - becoming the world's largest developers of solar power arrays.

"The Earth contains more than enough energy resources to meet demand for many decades to come," says Claude Mandil, director of Paris-based International Energy Agency. "The world is not running out of oil just yet. Moreover, there is more than enough money globally to finance the large expansion of energy infrastructure that will be needed.”

But, he continued, soaring oil and gas prices, the increasing vulnerability of energy supply routes and ever-increasing emissions of climate-destabilizing carbon dioxide are "symptoms of a considerable malaise in the world of energy.”

He described the predicted increase in global energy demand from now until 2030 as well as our continuing heavy reliance on carbon-emitting fossil fuels as “deeply troubling.”