Gwynne Dyer: The United States empire takes a hit in the "Noughties"

The old order is passing, the US.. dollar is on its way out as the only global currency, and the real power is shifting to mainland Asia.

Or is it? There are two trends that could slow or even stop this shift. They seemed quite distant at the start of the decade, but now they look very big and frightening. One is peak oil; the other is global warming.

In Europe, North America and Japan, energy consumption is growing slowly or not at all, and it is relatively cheap and easy to reduce dependence on imported oil. Just the fuel-efficiency standards already mandated by the Obama administration could reduce American oil imports by half by 2020.

Whereas Chinese and Indian dependence on imported oil is soaring. So is their use of coal. That