Why I write

I don't believe that the suburban model of living is sustainable.  Sprawl destroys the landscape, rendering mile after mile of useful farmland into an uninspiring parade of cheaply made big-box stores and chain restaurants, floating in their respective black ponds of asphalt.  The lethargy and isolation experienced by those who inhabit it wears on their body and spirit, in the form of depression, obesity, diabetes, stroke, heart attack, and other debilitating conditions.  At the federal level, our oil dependence requires our continuing military involvement in the middle-east, and worsens our trade imbalances.

We run huge energy deficits.  We drill and strip mine, always putting off the day when we can no longer rely on our fossil energy inheritance.  When that day comes, I believe that we will find that our alternative energy options will fail to produce the dividends necessary to continue this way of life, rendering most of these problems moot.  For energy scarcity reasons alone, I don't believe that suburbia will continue to exist.  My hope is that by bringing these problems to the attention of more people, early-on, our inevitable transition away from this lifestyle may be made more smoothly and with less traumatic consequences.  I don't look forward to the period of adjustment ahead, but I do look forward to its long-term consequences.  I don't view this as an impending disaster as I think that most people are at their best in the face of adversity.  I look forward to the day that our wasteful, throwaway consumer culture is discarded for something more substantial; when the streets are once again dominated by healthy people, living and participating in real communities.