Decoupling means that? (parte II)

Depois desta reflexão inicial descubro este artigo "Oil prices will be driven upwards by the needs of developing nations"
.
"This recent oil price rise should cause the Western powers to reflect seriously on their place in the world (Moi ici: Estão a ver o que aconteceu aos países da velha Europa no festival da Eurovisão? O asilo europeu parece condenado à irrelevância). For months, mainstream analysts have insisted oil markets were dominated by "demand destruction".
.
This was a "comfort-blanket" argument – suggesting oil would stay "fundamentally low" as long as the West remained in a slump. That alternative – an ongoing Western recession and high oil prices – was too grizzly to contemplate. But that's what we now face. (Moi ici: Estão a ver o filme? A drenagem continua de recursos para comprar petroleo, o estiolar das economias... talvez se aproveite a proximidade. Parce que c'est toujours la même chose: as pessoas e as empresas podem deslocalizar-se, mas os países ficam. E a penúria, mais tarde ou mais cedo, há-de abrir brechas nos edifícios normandos (you know what I mean), para que outras alternativas, outras estratégias de criação de riqueza possam ser geradas, testadas, reformuladas e aproveitadas)
.
The "demand destruction" argument was always overdone. Across the Western world, oil demand is relatively "income inelastic", seeing as people want to get around, heat their homes in winter and keep cool in summer whether the economy is slowing or not. So Western oil use hasn't fallen that much.
.
But the main reason "demand destruction" is nonsense is that the populous emerging markets have, for the most part, continued to grow despite the credit-crunch. And, as more and more of their people get richer – buying cars, air-conditioners and white goods for the first time – per capita oil use in these nations is growing faster still."