Now all bets are off.

The High Stakes of Rio 20

There is no guarantee, of course, that the three parts of this wager will pay off.

With Iran, the stakes are, and always have been, higher.

NEW YORK The surest bet on the future of energy is the need for low carbon energy supplies.

Moreover, breeders' support for these reforms remains limited since they do not always appreciate what is at stake.

But the fact that the EU has become a politico military player since 1998 has radically changed the stakes.

In several parts of the world, energy is an especially challenging issue since households rely on wood for their energy consumption.

As a result, the people who run these banks are encouraged to assume a lot of risky bets, which include pure gambling type activities.

Now all bets are off. In the United States, offshore drilling seems set to go the way of nuclear power, with new projects being shelved for decades.

This development underlines the importance of the issues of access to and control of natural resources, in a context characterized by recurrent cycles of drought and a continuing increase in demand for natural resources in order to satisfy the needs of the populations concerned.

The fact that endangered plant species tend to be concentrated geographically raises the stakes for conservation efforts in those areas. But it could also facilitate success by enabling policymakers to focus on narrow areas instead of vast habitats.

The key will be whether it manages a smooth deceleration, in which case renminbi internationalization will proceed, or suffers a hard landing, in which case social unrest will intensify and all bets are off.

President Chen upped the stakes even more by holding Taiwan's first ever popular referendum. It called for beefing up Taiwan's defense in the face of mainland China's missile threats and for building a peaceful framework of relations across the strait that separates Taiwan from the mainland.

Of course, the stakes are too high for Canada, Denmark, and Russia to allow the region s remoteness and its hostile environment to influence how resolutely they press their claims. Boundaries like these are fixed once and forever, and no one knows what discoveries, technologies, and opportunities the future might bring.