Which country is hot in 2010?

It's not California (the sixth or seventh largest "national" economy on earth), trying to resurrect itself with greentech. It's not oily, authoritarian Russia. It's not even China with its mega-population, huge trade surplus and population growth controls. We know it's not Dubai. Tuvalu or The Maldives are only hot when measured on a thermometer. According to Newsweek the real hot country next year is Brazil.

And it's not because Brazil produces plenty of ethanol biofuel, or has pledged to stop deforestation of Amazonia, or has definite plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Brazil is hot because of a huge new oil field offshore. There may be two billion barrels of crude oil under the Atlantic, to be exploited by a private Brazilian company.

How much is that? The U.S. currently consumes over 20-million barrels per day. That means this huge Brazilian oil field could keep America trucking for another 100 days! Let's party. Peak oil might be one of those conspiracies we read so much about.