Our times have been changed by the digital and the Green revolutions.
The digital revolution is bottom up, driven by strong popular demand for everything from on line retail to downloaded entertainment, and from social media to business computing. The US has swept all before it with its seven digital giant companies dominating the space in the advanced and non aligned world. China has developed its own powerful parallel systems for itself and its alliance of autocracies.
The Green revolution has been largely top down, pushed onto a reluctant consumer by subsidies, bans, taxes and rules. It has been mainly a feature of the EU and UK. They have been willing to sacrifice large swathes of their high energy burning and fossil fuel based industries, whilst turning to Chinese imports for many of the net zero replacements. China has adopted it to exploit the market opportunity it sees in selling batteries, electric cars, solar panels and wind turbines to the West, whilst itself continuing to increase its use of coal and gas, increasing its own CO2 output. The US has shifted from being a believer to going for massive growth in its fossil fuel sector. The US sees cheap reliable fossil fuel energy as the way to rebuild its industrial power.
We have witnessed the emergence of China as the rival and competitor to the USA for world power and influence, the decline of Europe and the rise of India, Brazil, Indonesia and other populous countries as they they grow faster. China can usually rely on Russia, North Korea, Cuba, and Iran. The US has worked with NATO, the EU, the leading members of OPEC, South Korea, Japan and the Philippines.
US power rests on many foundations. There is the superior force and technology of the large US military, with its capacity to intervene anywhere in the world through a carrier task force or long range warplanes. There is the leading role of the dollar and US commercial banks in world, trade and finance. There is the leadership the US usually gives to NATO as its majority donor. There is the grip US technology companies have over every family and business throughout the free world by supplying the software, communications, data storage and the rest that allow people to live their lives and businesses to pick up and process orders. There is the influence of US film and media entertaining and informing many in the world.
Today this power is under the microscope. Has the US won the war in Iran as they claim, when the Straits are still not open and the Revolutionary Guards still control the Iranian people? Is the yuan and an alternative trade and banking system growing faster as China and Russia seek alternatives to US directed activity? Will the US break up NATO in anger over the refusal of European countries to offer more help against Iran? Will there be more challenges to the US story? Or will the US with its growing control over oil and gas worldwide come to exert more power in a world which may think green but acts fossil fuel?
April 11, 2026
Richard Feynman:- “For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled,” was written in his personal appendix to the 1986 Rogers Commission Report regarding the Challenger space shuttle disaster. It emphasizes that physical reality and engineering integrity are paramount, and that scientific facts cannot be ignored or bypassed by management, PR, or wishful thinking.
Not something many our PPE, Classics, Geography (May) and Lawyer politicians ever seem to take on board.
April 11, 2026
Well it is good that Artemis II touches down safely after nine days in space with a broken loo. I wonder if any of the crew in these 9 days have managed come up with any scientific benefit remotely worth the £billions spent yet or why a far more costly manned crew was ever needed.
I am still waiting for something real – just v. expensive show business and politics I guess. The money could have saved many hundreds of thousands of lives and produced a large financial return too on Earth.
April 11, 2026
Or solved the controlled fusion energy barriers perhaps – to replace fossil fuels energy dominance.
April 11, 2026
You surprise me Ll. I never thought you a luddite
Space exploration has been responsible for many advances in technology and medicine
Perhaps you’re a little jealous that the Americans can pull off such a feat.
I for one am happy with their endeavours which can ultimately benefit mankind.
No doubt you would have criticised Columbus or Cook.
Ad for Americans, they will do what’s best for them unlike the spineless traitors in Westminster. Trump has shone a very bright light on the green scam and other countries are raking note.
Europe notably the EU wants to be the regulatory capital of the world but he rest of the world isn’t interested.
While Brussels legislates for bottle tops and the definition of Marmalade, the USA powers on with real world discoveries.
April 11, 2026
“We will be doing it again next step Mars” says Trump.
Anyone going to Mars will clearly never be coming back again as you clearly cannot take a return rocket and fuel with you. If you know some science and engineering & think about it for a while this is very clear indeed. Life under the sea or on top of Everest for ever more would be far preferable & far more comfortable.
April 11, 2026
Feynman explains “why returning from Mars is impossible” videos. Not Feynman but an AI version but surely correct and entertainingly explained too.
April 11, 2026
Surely as a STEM advocate you know that progress occurs in increments.
Under you the Mayflower might never have sailed. Columbus and Magellan would be court jesters and Captain Oats would not have gone outside for a while.
April 11, 2026
I think the point is that the USA started the Artemis project simply because they could. Since the financial crisis of 2008 their GDP per capita has risen by 72% whereas in UK it has barely risen at all. UK GDP per capita is less now than the poorest USA state – Mississippi. The USA economy is bolstered by huge tech firms which have achieved explosive growth. They are in a position where they can afford to fund projects like Artemis which may have many indirect spin-off technology benefits and, as Reeves has told us, government spending is itself good for growth. Of course for an impoverished country like UK to fund anything like a massively expensive borderline vanity project with no apparent real benefits would be absurd – but they persist with HS2. So, best not to criticise how USA spend their money, it’s as pointless as complaining how Bill Gates spends his – it’s their money, they can afford it, it doesn’t affect us and it’s none of our concern.
April 11, 2026
@LL. Yes, I haven’t followed this Artemis thing but wondered why in earth such sums of money could be spent on a lunar jaunt, when we have so many terrestrial problems that need hard cash. As you say, just very expensive showbiz and politics – a circus to keep the plebs from thinking too hard.
April 11, 2026
@LL. I think most of our politicians, and many of the tech oligarchs and their ilk are modern snake oil salesmen. Products that make them very wealthy indeed, which may possibly harm the end consumer in unexpected ways.
April 11, 2026
The Straits will surely be opened somehow as it is in everyone’s interests that they are. Surely a better outcome than an Iran with nuclear weapons which seems to be what Starmer and Hermer seemed to prefer judged by their actions (the only was to judge such people). I remain optimistic compared with the nuclear anrmed alternative that we are surely (thanks to Israel and Trump) in a far better place than we would have been with Biden or Kamala Harris? We shall see fingers crossed.
April 11, 2026
Nothing “green” about a war on tree, plant and crop food – the gas of life. Or “pollution” as some like to call it. We currently have rather a dearth of it in historical terms in the world’s atmosphere. Anyway the politicians plans for reduce it – public transport, heat pumps, “renewables”, EVs, walking, cycling, biofuels, killing home industries with expensive energy … make little or no difference many like EV and exporting industries can actually increase world CO2.
See Dr William Happer “the gas of life” and his other excellent videos.
April 11, 2026
I wonder if the average American is aware of the impact of the major isolation, if not intolerance being waged by the bully President? Perhaps it is indeed long overdue that Europe and others really recognised the military and economic contributions made in their past. Are we at a crossroads – choose serfdom as always, or strike out for much more independence and responsibility? And the loser being – USA or former minions? This egotistic and somewhat uncontrollable President seems to be forcing a decision Americans may live to regret.
April 11, 2026
Whatever you aay I am not convinced I think America has passed it’s ‘best before’ date and is in decline on several fronts – that 77 million people could vote for an oaf like Trump say’s a lot about the disadvantages millions are working under then voting for movie stars and glamour for the most important job in the land – of course that’s democracy but it doesn’t always work. Today we’ll see if the other Mr populist Victor Orban can hold on – I bet our own N Farage will be hanging to the edge of his seat – populist are all rhe same and In the end people generally deserve what they vote for but sometimes they don’t. In the case of America I hope they have a period of reflection post Trump so they can better judge for what’s most important when it comes to elections to high office – they are a good people and deserve better.
April 11, 2026
The deciding factor in who will come out on top of world influence and affairs during this century rests entirely on AI.
How we embrace it or more accurately how it embraces us and how we keep control over its innate capacity to devolve and develop its own agenda independent of human control is where the real question is.
The most benign outcome we can expect from AI development is robotised servants and automatic systems monitoring itself to maintain our health and wellbeing needs.
The opposite of that vision of benign assistance is also a potential outcome.
It will not matter if the AI authority is initiated in the USA or in China or wherever. The future geopolitical landscape is changing fast, but it is not down to traditional power projection despite current events.
April 11, 2026
Digital power was inevitable as the computing world has advanced. It hasn’t finished with us yet, there are more evolutionary ideas to come. Whether all of that is a good thing remains to be seen.
The so called green revolution was far from organic based around lies and deception, as well as a good amount of brainwashing of the masses, as it was to stimulate action. It was always a false god, but they tagged on protection of the Earth and plastics to make it more real.
With luck green energy will fade away once more people have spotted the failure of ideology to rule us without having real technology now, but probably in the future backed up by the digital age to come it may make ore sense
When Trump is triumphant in Iran the energy situation will settle down to a degree, but we still have to worry about our nutcase government taking us back to the dark ages with our energy left in the ground, while the other concern will be that Starmer doesn’t get us involved in WW3.
April 11, 2026
The USA supports business to thrive but it has the benefit of being able to borrow silly amounts of money on the back of the grrenback being the world’s reserve currency.
With the amount owed, the USA is in reality bankrupt and it only needs China to stop loaning money for the model to crash.
It works….. for now.
April 11, 2026
I suggest that Two-Tier, and the treacherous pro-EU British Establishment, is going to find that it was a very bad idea to fall out so badly with President Trump.
The first consequence is that Trump has withdrawn his (weak) support for the Chagos Treachery and Two-Tier has been forced to drop the legislation. The islands will remain British. Since our Human Rights PM is, according to his justification for the treachery, going to be breaking International Law – which he prioritises above everything else – he should resign, taking Hermer and Jonathan Powell down with him.
April 11, 2026
It seems to me that we have a simple choice. There are two large power blocks in the world. China and the US. Europe and the UK) are no longer at the table as recent events have clearly shown.
There are many here who hate (an appropriate word in this context) the US with a vengance. In fact they don’t like us very much either. However, much they might rail against the West, I have no doubt where I prefer to live.
The regimes that run China, Russia, Iran and North Korea have little regard for their populations as has been demonstrated many times in recent years. If you don’t want to be welded in your room during Covid, sent to be killed by drones, executed by anti-aircraft fire or machine gunned in the street – then you should have no doubts about where your bread is buttered. We need the US much more than we should but we also need to rapidly reduce our reliance on China – who (like the French) are not our friends…
April 11, 2026
Nicely summarised. However, I suspect the British Mandarin Class and the authoritarians in Parliament would far sooner have the level of control over the population that President Xi wields, than the land of the free, which is currently represented by President Trump.
(As the Covid Tyranny demonstrated all too clearly, the authoritarians in Parliament are found in both Labour and Tory Parties. I shall never forget Jeremy Hunt calling for the UK to have draconian Chinese-style Covid restrictions imposed.)
April 11, 2026
We live in fascinating, if turbulent, times. It does look as if the US under Trump 2.0’s latest update has catalysed the rest of the world’s mistrust of and resistance to US hegemony. I think his crude F-word and blasphemous Easter message probably broke the camel’s back.
Those US power foundations are crumbling. I don’t think its AI dominance (if it has it – the Chinese produced AI at a fraction of the cost) will save it (if anything I think the tech oligarchs will try to use the technology to enslave the population, much as China does). In military terms US dominance has been defied very publicly by Iran, the Huthis and the Taliban. Its economic dominance though the petrodollar is resented and the rest of the world is in the early stages of moving away. When that falls the US debt bubble will break but that is down the road. Dominance in media has already gone – Fox, CNN, cable, WSJ, NYT – fewer and fewer people consume or believe any of this both in the US and across the world. I do think the “challenges” you mention will overcome the US Empire sooner, rather than later.
Of particular interest is that social cohesion in the States is unravelling as the right-left /trad-woke split is now joined by an America First-Epstein class split. If we get to the Midterms without a nuclear calamity, then I assume the Democratic wing of the Uniparty will hold the rpolitical cards and harass Trump but not deliver policies that their base, and America Firsters want. So the next Presidential race could bring forward some real independent challengers, as the US sun sets and the BRICS sun rises.
April 11, 2026
Why are you so surprised? Since the 1980’s UK politicians, government and establishment have consistently failed to match the support other countries have provided to their commerce and industries.
April 11, 2026
A glaring comparison proving the UK and the EU got it wrong!! Surely the leaderships must realise their gross errors? Or is it again an arrogant matter of refusing to lose face? Germany has reverted to Coal already, so why can OUR country not follow?
Such a move would ensure CHEAP energy again and give many brownie points to the government that acts upon it. Duh!