Asia's energy demands
On the oncoming energy wars, check the McKinsey’s article about Asia's energy future needs:
This article seems limited to thinking that the supply is a matter of exploration and investment, but it seems to me that a deeper transformation is in order.
This new increased demand implies new technologies, improved efficiencies and major spending on alternatives.
It also means that there is going to surface a new culture of energy frugality, as with such a big competition it is clear that energy prices will simply go up. What on consumption and manufacturing trends? Will it actually make it better for knowledge workers, and restrict ownership of consumer goods to those that can afford them? A country with less SUVs and more public urban transportation means also a more aggregated population, and a shift toward cheaper food alternatives. Subsidizing meat is already expensive, but with duplicated gas prices this becomes almost untenable. Changes in diet, as well?
And, if there is a migration, it is going to be toward medium size centers, which would afford the possibility of great market and aggregation, while maintaining a human scale to allow both transactions and communications without resorting to use of fuel energy. Miami becomes too big for its own good, and Kernersville can not justify the cost of bringing in that Italian magazine.
Commuting habits change: the knowledge worker can stay longer at home (assuming there's no significant increase in communications costs), and the production occurs within close distance, in the ideal case.
More bike riding. That's for sure.