I think that article is more about promoting European nationalism at the expense of United States. It's not a secret that the American economy is preforming lousy, and the European economy/currency look like better investments.
Keeping that in mind, point number five is the easiest to refute.
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Europe's ecological "footprint," the amount of the Earth's capacity that a population consumes, is about half that of the United States.
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So what? This doesn't mean that Europe is better off. This means that if Americans adopted the ecological footprint of a average European overnight, the US would be able to
export oil. This also might mean that Americans have a greater potential for increases in efficiency that would not negatively effect the standard of living.
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Europe may rely on energy from Russia and the Middle East for some time, but it is also leading the world in reducing its energy dependence and in taking action to counteract global climate change.
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Reducing it's oil dependency is all well and good, but Europe is still held hostage by Russia and the Middle East.
Might explain why American relations with France and Germany are getting warmer.... especially over Iraq/Iran.
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In March, the heads of all 27 E.U. nations agreed to make renewable energy sources 20 percent of the union's energy mix by 2020 and to cut carbon emissions by 20 percent.
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They can pledge all they want. France is still the
only country to meet it's Kyoto treaty goal in emission reductions. Isn't it a little early to start making new pledges if the old ones can't be met?
Jam it back in, in the dark.
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