There are storms of many kinds: snow storms such as covered the Eastern portions of North America and financial storms that cover the globe. You might ask why the US economy when it is producing so much in the way of armaments has such a slow growth relative to other countries. The means that armaments could be taking a largish share of the productive capacity. Is military spending government spending, and who pays for it? When? And, obviously, who dies for it?Let no one underestimate the present costs of the 'war' on terror. They are very high, and produce little in the way of actual commodities, unless one thinks of security as a commodity. Well, one way to think of it is that security assists in retain what we have.
In the next decade, our costs for energy have to rise to make it attractive to invest in alternatives without a CO2 creating effect. Companies that have not already invested in such technologies do not see them as business opportunities, but as unwanted business costs.
When we grow plants to create fuel that is one thing, but if we grew plants to sweeten our environment that would be another. It is important that we learn from our mistakes and redirect people towards using the soil in their neighbourhood more effectively as they invest in planting around their homes and in creating areas near homes that will attract clouds and rainfall, then use the water more effectively and cleanly without run off to pollution. Don't let your home be a source of pollutant. Capture your water and use it for your plants. Grow gardens and trees. Reduce your grassland and replace them with forest and long term slow growing trees like oak. If we do that we can have our cake and eat it too.