2012: THE BEST YEAR EVER? “2012 has been a spectacular year in terms of net global prosperity, accompanied by less hunger, less disease, and less war than ever before. . . . And hey, what about energy scarcity? Pfffft. Thanks to improved efficiencies and new technologies (a.k.a. hydraulic fracturing!), both our total fossil-fuel usage and carbon emissions are on the way down. What’s more, the sane thinking involving the threat of climate change is looking a lot less catastrophic than we have always been led to believe.”