Second-Order Quantum Coupling Effects and Energy-related Problems

Energy issues have become increasingly important for our world. It could be plausibly argued that energy will shortly be the single most important problem for industrialized countries, on the same footing as food, water and overpopulation, for the world as a whole. On a timescale of decades, our world may face an inevitable exhaustion of nonrenewable energy supplies. Even at the present time, energy issues weigh heavily in political events around the globe. Instability in the Middle East has the potential to lead to large increases in energy costs in the US, which may help to focus the attention of this country on a problem that has been important for some time.