We'll buy fewer things, but we'll also have more time to enjoy our lives. Does anybody really like the rat race? (Pg. 258).

If the objective of climate change policy is to reduce carbon emissions, then that's exactly what's achieved by higher energy prices (Pg. 240)

The deeper the recession, the better it is for the atmosphere (Pg. 238).

Neither China nor the United States currently puts a price on carbon, and neither appears likely to make a policy change anytime soon (Pg. 235).

The pace at which our economies grow is far more important to the level of future emissions that any government-mandated carbon reduction schemes (Pg. 233).

Even brutal dictatorial regimes could soon recognize that explosive population growth and food scarcity is an untenable combination (Pg. 226).

Food didn't go to the highest bidder, but to the citizens of the countries in which it was produced (Pg. 218).

Dictators throughout the Arab world have seen how hunger can quickly turn into revolution (Pg. 215).

A crackdown on immigration goes hand in hand with slower economic growth. (Pg. 177)

But those plans don't account for a new world of higher energy costs that will prevent the economy from growing at the pace achieved in the last decade, when it pumped out a steady stream of new jobs every month. (Pg. 176).

Output from Canada's tar sands , currently about 1.5 million barrels a day, is forecast to double by 2020. (Page 129).

Before the Iranian revolution of the late 1970s, the country was pumping almost 6 million barrels a day. Some forty years later, Iran's production is still below 4 million barrels a day. (Page 78)

Europe is stuck in a quagmire of austerity measures, budget deficits and financial bailouts. As its political leaders are finding out, it's a situation fraught with the the likelihood of debt default, social upheaval and political change. The economic hopes of an entire continent are wrapped up in a single magic bullet: growth. (Page 50)

A breakup of the monetary union opens the door for all kinds of economic and political shifts. You can bet the Europe of tomorrow will look very different from the Europe of today. (Page 62)

A hungry population full of young people unable to find enough work to put food on the table only promises to keep stoking unrest throughout the Arab world. (Page 85)

Fukushima and the Deepwater Horizon rig are both products of an insatiable demand for energy, which compels us to harness ever more costly and tricky sources of supply. The more our economies grow, the more energy and power they need, prompting the development of even riskier resources, from the deep waters of the Arctic to environmentally hazardous shale oil on America's heartland. (Page 121)