One reason I've been having a bit of difficulty catching the rhythm of this discussion, despite its enlightening and enjoyable flow, is my constant awareness (obsession?) of the fact that no nation is an hermetically-sealed entity, especially when it comes to energy, communications and air & water quality, to name a just a few borderless quality considerations that come to mind.
Consider international transportation, for one. To whose bottom line is jet fuel on international routes assigned? How about oceangoing freighters and tankers and luxury liners carrying containerized-goods, oil and passengers, respectively? And what of the multi-billion-dollar casinos, factories and industrial parks being erected by Western powers in emerging nations all over the globe, and, increasingly, by emerging powers who are themselves reaching beyond their own borders and doing the same, as well? Trans-border pipelines and electric grids just add to this complexity. The list is long.
The kind of accounting leakage implied above may very well have been considered too slight to matter thirty years ago, but such is no longer the case (in real terms, despite its usually being glossed over in the actual accounting of these types of metrics) and stands to become even more pronounced with the passing of time.
When and where does one draw the proverbial line in the sand? Or has that already been done? A system of international carbon credits begins to address this matter on some levels, but the latter won't do much to dispel these more fundamental debates over energy independence, whether total or otherwise. Thoughts?
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