In today’s world, the stock markets are too volatile for the traditional investor to buy a stock and leave it in a portfolio until retirement. Without constant monitoring, there is a risk of losing the entire investment.

Making money in the U.S. and Canadian stock markets requires that an investor constantly buy and sell company stocks.

Last week saw the price of crude oil inch closer to $140/ BBL. Some economists believe the price rise is mainly due to the world oil supply shortfall of about 4 million barrels per day [MBPD]. Proof of the shortage can be seen in the production numbers of the largest US multi-national oil companies ExxonMobil (XOM) and ConocoPhillips (COP), which fell 11% in Q1 2008. Last week Saudi Arabia agreed to increase crude oil production by 500,000 BPD to offset world shortfalls. So critical is the shortfall and the sensitivity of the gasoline price, that last week the US Senate defeated the Climate Change bill. Experts predict a crisis in 10 years when Iran curtails exports due to depleting crude oil production rates.

The US consumes about 21 MBPD of crude oil of which 5,102,000 BPD of crude oil is produced domestically. A typical refinery produces about 44% gasoline, 22% diesel distillates, 9% Jet fuel, 4% heavy fuel oil, 4% liquefied petroleum gas (LPG’s) and 17% other products. In 2008 US gasoline consumption is expected to be about 9,308,000 BPD of which 9,100,000 BPD is produced domestically.

Geothermal power plants are an almost pollution free source of electricity. Typically they are installed near shallow subsurface sources of steam and / or hot water characterized by faults, seismic activity, earthquakes and volcanoes.

The source of geothermal power generation is steam at a temperature of ~300 degree C. To access geothermal steam involves drilling a vertical well to the source. A second well is drilled to the lower water level of the steam source. The steam is directed into a steam turbine which in turn generates electricity. The condensed turbine exhaust is re-injected back into the underground reservoir.

“Exxon (XOM) has taken the most skeptical line of any major oil company towards alternative fuels,” said Exxon's senior vice-president Stephen Simon, testifying before the Select Committee of Energy Independence and Global Warming in Washington, D.C. on April 2, 2008. “The company did not believe that existing technologies in this area were viable - and the company was hoping to ‘leapfrog’ to a new generation of techniques.”

Some scientists say that man is responsible for global warming, causing the atmospheric temperature to rise and glaciers and polar ice caps to melt. It has been estimated that the earth’s average atmospheric temperature has risen about 0.8 degree C over the last 200 years. The Arctic region’s temperature over the same period of time has risen about 1.5 degree C. Some scientists say this is attributed to the absorption of solar radiation caused by particulate in the snow. Instead of reflecting solar radiation, dirty snow is absorbing it. It has been estimated that this effect has contributed to about 19% of global warming or about 0.15 degree C. As more layers of snow melt, more particulate is exposed causing the rate of ice and snow to melt exponentially. Scientists say that if global warming is not reversed, all the world’s polar ice caps may melt over the next 500 years and the sea levels may rise about 90 meters. Many countries in the Caribbean along with USA eastern seaboard states, as well as Florida and Louisiana, Canada’s east coast, South Viet Nam and Bangladesh may be under water along with the majority of world cities currently located along ocean coast lines.