The point you are missing, is the respect you get for respecting the other guys culture. Learning a language, especially one as far apart from English as Mandarin, is getting to know a foreign culture. Also you get to understand the structure of your own language much better.

A high percentage of americans, in my experience, suffer from a very narrow minded view on culture. Not from caracter or personality, but from lack of exposure.

So he should either go for

- Mandarin for demograhpic reasons. I am finding more an more C.S. research papers, where only the abstract is in English (my 2nd Lang.) and the rest is in Mandarin.
- Korean if you are gamer ;-)
- Japanese if you are into all that budo stuff.

I would stay away from Hindi or Urdu. It is my understanding, that speaking english in India is considered cultured, but my original point about culture would probably still hold. Mandarin, btw, used to be the language of cultured people all through indo-china as well (dont know about now), as was French in Germany and German in Russia at one time in the past.

Thank you for listing more reasons to use not to use either fosil nor nuclear fuels.

I live within a tidal zone that is feeling the climate change right now. We have had higher and higher storm tides for the last 100 years. Blasting GHGs into the athmosphere does not make it better.

Pointing at Centralia as an argument in favor of using nuclear power is Insanity.

Well, Gas and Coal (which are not the intended replacements) at least don't remain a deadly menace for ten times longer than man has walked this planet until now. And on the matter of greenhouse gas emissions: Germany did sign the Kyoto Accord and at least is in roughly the right region to fullfill what it promised. Other major industrial nations did neither sign, nor even have a plan on what to do.

He, who is without sin shall throw the first stone.