I was watching a very deep news special on Japanese Asahi TV the other night. It went on for several hours, the topic was Global Warming. Besides the usual about the Arctic in immediate danger, It went in some interesting directions. For example, they went into an hour about how human induced climate change helped destroy the Roman Empire.

How did the Roman’s do that? Deforestation, to feed the huge number of bathhouses in Rome and other cities. This altered weather patterns which caused crops to fail. Starving people then invaded the Empire, destroying it.

The show drew quite a parallel with the luxurious lifestyle led by the Roman’s, and the present excessive consumption lifestyle led by Americans. They were quite specific, citing the date of 1950 and the establishment of Las Vegas as the beginning of American excess.

The show openly proposed that Japan return to it’s lifestyle before American Commodore Perry came, a lifestyle that centered on reuse and conservation.

Now some pundits in the media and on the net are debating whether it is Peak Oil or Global warming that is the more immediate danger to American society. I think it is just a double whammy. Both are equally dangerous.

So what will be the American legacy when America is gone? If you ask many in the US, they would say championing freedom and human rights. If you ask many across the world, the monuments to America in the desert would be a weathered Golden Arches, next to it a rusted SUV with gun rack, the bumper stickers would say “Jesus Saves” and “Kill ‘em all, let God sort ‘em out”. That is how most people now view America.

George Bush wasted 8 precious years in avoiding Peak Oil and Global Warming, he tried to put off the oil problem for a generation by seizing the oil fields of the Middle East. He failed.

Now, with the surge of Barack Obama, perhaps we have a real hope of saving most of America and the world. But we will have to change. And have no doubt, it is late, many of us will not make it. This is the legacy bequeathed to us by the Bush administration. Remember this when you vote in November.