James Howard Kunstler has two articles on Alternet about oil dependence/peak oil/American society, and they're worth a read. I don't agree with everything, and neither do the worthy commenters, but there is real truth here, the harsh kind of truth we humans don't want to face:Pricey Gas? That's Reality
Ten Ways to Prepare for a Post-Oil Society
"We have to live differently. We're going to have to re-inhabit and reconstruct our civic places -- especially our small towns -- and we're going to have to use the remaining rural places for growing food locally, wherever possible.
Our big cities will probably contract, while they densify at their centers and along their waterfronts. Our suburbs will enter a shocking state of economic and practical failure.We cannot imagine this scenario because we have invested so much of our collective wealth the past 50 years in the infrastructure for a way of life that simply has no future.
We'd better start paying attention to the signals that reality is sending or we will be living in a very violent, impoverished and demoralized nation. And we have to begin somewhere, which is why I suggest we start by rebuilding the national passenger railroad system. It would have a significant impact on our oil use. It would put a lot of people to work on something meaningful and beneficial to all ranks of American society. The equipment is lying out there rusting in the rain, waiting to be fixed. We don't have to re-invent anything to do it.
The fact that we are not even talking about such solutions shows how unserious we are."