Many See China Rivaling U.S. in Influence by 2020, International Survey Finds - washingtonpost.com
This is an article from 13 December in the Washington Post. I highlighted the bits I thought were rather amusing.

I don't understand how climate change is the biggest threat to us in the world...maybe I missed something, but I've always seen the science show how the climate shift is an "over hundreds or thousands of years" type of issue...

And I find it funny that Europeans under the EU think they are a world power, but others in the world don't agree.

Who do you think is a world power now, and where do you think that power will lie in 2020?

I know that the US isn't a world power. We lost that title when we invaded Iraq. I bet if you asked those same people if the US was a world power they would say no.

As far as climate change goes, that is definitely the world's most pressing issue. If there is no world to speak of, then all of the other problems are pointless.

That may be your opinion about the US, but polls do show that the majority of nations in the world still look to the US as a world power, and/or leader. Even at the Bali UN Conference on Climate Change the smaller nations specifically called on the US to be a leader in fighting pollution, and to be a leader for them in the scientific and technological fields.

I understand that people are upset about the war in Iraq, but world power status isn't something that comes and goes quickly. And it has little to do with a singular foreign policy decision. It has everything to do with foreign investment, policy, free-trade, technology sharing, and security.

Believe it or not, there are still a lot of nations that depend on us. And we are still the largest contributor of money and logistics to the UN. So conferences, humanitarian, and medical expeditions by the UN wouldn't be so easy without the US. I'm not trying to make us seem perfectly, just stating that there is a lot to world power status....and our shoes will be hard to fill (and have proven such to others who have tried to be a world power).

Climate change is important, but the world isn't going to be destroyed as you seem to put it. The sea level rising 3 feet in 100+ years is a manageable issue that isn't an immediate threat to the world. We have time to come up with good and solid solutions to climate change. I agree that climate change is pressing in the fact that the world needs to work together to find solutions and increase efficiency in power generation, but it isn't something that can be fixed tomorrow or the next day.

I also believe that if you ask the family members or surviving victims of 9/11, Bali, Madrid, London, Beirut, Kobar Towers, Pentagon, Tokyo transit, numerous airliners, or any other major or minor terrorist attack...they might view this priority listing differently.

If you have never experienced terrorism you probably would think Climate Change is more important. I tell you what though...I know that sea levels might rise a few feet in 100+ years, I can see that coming. But I don't want some extremist walking in to a school and blowing himself up for The Prophet or The Jihad. You don't see that sort of thing coming usually, and it's in your own backyard. That seems quite pressing to stop or prevent; to me anyway.

We can talk about poverty when someone else brings it up...but this response is long enough already I think.