Regardless of whether you believe in global warming or not, surely for reasons of pollution, management of finite resources and supply and demand then surely dont it make sense to use as little fuel as possible?
I would not take too much notice of right wing economists writing books on the subject. Of course their is going to be people who say its a con. I agree there are some capitilists jumping on the bandwagon and making money out of it with consultancy work and carbon offsetting schems and nonsense like that but the people who are experts seem to feel we are experiencing some kind of climate change - its just the scale of it and if its manageable which is up for discussion.
The bottomline is, growing economies use more fuel. As China and India grow fuel becomes more expensive as does food. We have had a free ride in the west for years. The only way to manage it is to be more frugal in our consumption. If that means the standard of living declines a bit due to the economy growing at a slower right but the world becoming a more equal place then I reckon it aint a bad thing.
It is not the cards you are dealt but what you do with them that counts