nobody's hoping. big research money is being put into alternative energy these days. it's an inevitability. and so what if china, india, even the US are big consumers of coal. It's a declining business. Coal plants are being shut down in the US. China is starting to do the same thing by switching to ng in their smog infested cities. The big fish in this case is China, India, Russia. The remainder of developing countries can eventually follow the trend, but won't matter as much.