A Call for Action

Continuing on my journey, I wish to call for the greatness in people.

I was undoubtedly motivated and disturbed last night. I boarded a airplane just like I have every Thanksgiving and like always stood in long lines of families flying all over the world to see loved ones. Cars driving from all over Tri-State area to an airport, people funneling like sheep through to their gates. All just to board a plan for vacation, for the 4 day weekend at highly inflated prices. Once everyone is herded, they board a 300,000 pound plan bound for a city that is not their ultimate destination(there is so much fuel used to pick that plane up). We cut through the 30,000 altitude on a clear night. After a short conversation with my wife, I glanced out the window only to street lights for hundreds of miles. I don't believe I have ever seen such a far distance from a plane before (there was a heavy rain the night before). To look out on civilization growing for many years planned around the capabilities of car, was disturbing. There will be a lot of hurdles to cross on our path to become a more clean energy dominated economy. Almost every single neighborhood was planned in the 50's or late 90's. All when gas was cheap. Housing sprawl followed what was convenient for car commutes, based on old highway designs. Where does this take us?

Well for starters: I believe very strongly that America will rise to the greatest occasion in history and take a leadership role in growing & developing a sustainable economy based on clean & renewable energy. I believe this country has to to stay competitive throughout the world in the coming years. We can not take this for granted, we may have the greatest accumulation of brain power and in turn innovation. But, we have a infrastructure based on 1950's models. Outside of efficient commuting cities in the country (San Fransisco, New York, etc) all else is based on cheap energy to propel a car. How do we overcome such a hurdle and don't allow a country that has very innovative thinkers, a dictator in leadership (democracy is always slow to change because everyone wants to give their input), or abundant resources that have not been entirely exploited yet to step into our role? That is our challenge and the longer we wait, the harder old habits will take to overcome.

Who has suggestions?