In the short term ...

A record number of super-sized tankers are now headed to the US. Photograph: ClassicStock/Alamy

In the short term, oil and renewables won. On the US & the America's side, oil, on the Chinese side, solar but both winners will soon be eclipsed by the gorilla in the room, climate change as said entity ignores all borders as the world moves further into the 21st century.

In the open seas, an armada of empty tankers has quietly turned west. A record number of super-sized vessels are now heading to the US, where oil drillers and refineries are preparing to profit from Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East.

Almost 30 of these vessels, each able to hold 2m barrels of oil, are contracted to load US crude, destined for a global market facing the biggest supply crisis in history.

It is just over five years since the shale revolution made the US a net energy exporter and the world’s biggest producer of oil and gas. Now the White House is poised to strengthen its claim to an even greater share of the global oil market as the Middle East’s decades-long dominance is dismantled by war.

Guardian graphic. Source: The Oil & Gas Journal. Note: China and Taiwan and Sudan
and South Sudan are combined in the data. *Estimates for the Saudi Arabian-Kuwaiti Neutral Zone
are divided equally between the two countries

As doubts over the future market dominance of the Gulf’s petrostates deepen, the surge in market prices has begun fuelling the rise of the Americas. The growth in US and Canadian crude production – which has accelerated in recent years – is expected to continue through the 2020s. However, almost half of the world’s oil supply growth over the rest of the decade is expected to come from Latin America’s oil boom.

On the solar side, China dominates ...

China’s exports of solar capacity doubled to a record high of 68GW in the
first month of the Iran crisis alone. Photograph: AFP/Getty

China has long dominated the supply chains for the key building blocks of clean energy technologies, from wind turbines to solar panels and batteries. Beijing’s industrial prowess has helped the world’s biggest energy importer to capture between 60% and 85% of the world’s renewables market at a time when countries are preparing to accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels.

As the world’s first “electrostate”, China stands in contrast with the White House pursuit of fossil fuel dominance. The country also stands to play a significant role in creating the new energy order.

“China derives strategic leverage from its leadership across renewables and electrification, manufacturing and innovation, domestic deployment and global exports,” said Ember, a climate and energy thinktank. “China is not merely manufacturing electrotech hardware, it is manufacturing an energy future in which it holds a commanding position.”

The crisis has meant the world’s greatest supplier of clean technologies is selling these components at record rates as countries prepare to cut their use of fossil fuels for good.

The intent for countries to leave oil for good is all well and good but long term implications regarding the intent to ameliorate global warming using said tech lies on undeniable facts regarding renewables and related factors impacting the spread and maintenance of same: 

• habitat destruction,  
• environmental degradation
• resource depletion
• The limits to Growth

We are running out of planet.

Getty/Futurism

It's the water ... seems the inability to plan is not part of the plan when it comes to Corpus Christi, Texas.

A massive drought coupled with political mismanagement might fully deplete water in a major city: neither in West Asia nor the Horn of Africa, but in the United States of America. According to

Inside Climate News, the city of Corpus Christi, Texas could soon completely out of water in the next year. It’s the eighth largest city in Texas, and a major industrial node in the Gulf Coast. Its water infrastructure provides access to over 500,000 Texans, as well as the major chemical plants, oil facilities, and plastics factories which call the Gulf region home.

As Climate News notes, Corpus Christi is on track to be the first American city to completely run out of water, as its reservoirs near empty following a five-year drought. Though nobody can snap their fingers and end a drought, the extremely dry conditions follow decades of warnings that South Texas is posed for a water crisis.