While studying Ops Research at the University of Rochester, Chu's alma mater, my professor, a Chinese immigrant, repeatedly used the phrase "A thumb of rule." Apparently Chinese genes and the waters of the Genessee are not meant for one another.

is the acidification of the oceans from dissolved CO2 which may have an even stronger positive feedback loop than atmospheric warming.

If we persist in our current trends for much longer we will have raised the CO2 in the atmosphere to the point that acidification will rise to levels unseen for the 120 million years since the cretaceous period.

Corals are already likely doomed around the globe, and the other calcium extractors that form the base of the marine food chain (krill and foraminifera) will be threatened soon. This is serious business, and it's happening completely out of sight of ordinary people. Without plankton the ocean will become a desert; all of the higher creatures will be starved out.

There was (iirc, it's been a while) a question of whether we were seeing a global cooling or warming trend. My money was on the latter but it was hardly a sure thing. Despite the deniers, most people get the idea that GW isn't BS, even if there is some imprecision - the cliff is there in front of us and we're moving forward. 50', 1000', doesn't matter. We're still going to pull a Wile E. Coyote if we're stupid.

We also know, via the ozone layer, not only can we mess the environment up but also that we can fix it.

I also think Americans are slightly more cognizant of the world around us. That imho is a minor point, but the world feels smaller at least to me. That translates into more attention (however small) paid to where our oil money is going.

One huge difference is that the 1970s oil crisis hit just as the conservative movement hit its stride, resulting in Reagan's election. Among many changes, one thing Reagan did right off the bat was dumb down car bumper requirements and bust the PATCO union. Business needs trumped social needs. It's been downhill from there for three decades.

What's happened in the intervening years with the rise of China and India along with global warming only makes the case for alternative energy even more clear. What's different now is that the conservative movement is expended, for now, and it appears we have a federal government motivated to change, at least for the next four years.

... which is our seemingly-perpetual trade imbalance. Even though oil has gotten cheaper, importing 14 million barrels/day of the stuff is still pretty expensive. OPEC will eventually own our asses if we persist in tooling around in huge SUV's.