If you want to read an eloquent and powerful article about the way the American lifestyle is going to change as a result of higher gas prices and the environmental crisis, check out this one, from today’s Washington Post Op Ed page.  It is by Bill McKibben from Middlebury College and the author of Deep Economy.   He argues that we are undergoing a profound and (most likely) permanent change in our way of life.  As he puts it:

Pulled back by the inescapable gravity of higher prices and the growing scarcity of fossil fuels, we’re starting a slow recoil into more dense and compact regions and localities. The frontier of endless mobility that we’ve known our entire lives is closing.

Americans are feeling it and things are already changing.  He points to the fact that we are driving less (amazingly we drove 6% less vehicle miles this May than last May), airlines are contracting, and small farms are on the rise for the first time in a century.  Closer to home, I just learned about a friend of mine that is starting to make biodiesel for his contracting business.  His trucks and equipment all run on diesel, which seemed like a good idea 3 years ago, but the current fuel bill is threatening to put him out of business.  So he bought $5000 worth of biodiesel conversion equipment and did deals with 2 local restaurants that use (and throw away) about 100 gallons of cooking oil a week and he and his wife are going to start making their own fuel in the barn.  If they hussle, they should make about 80 gallons of good diesel a week which should eliminate the entire fuel bill for the company.  Projected ROI on the $5000, about half a year, including the labor to make the diesel. (Current fuel cost = 70 gallons per week X $5.15/gallon this morning at the pump X 50 weeks = $18,025).

I really feel like we are at the same point we were at in about 1995 with the Internet.  We are entering into an age of remarkable change, and optimists like myself see unprecendented opportunity when there is this much change.  The Internet revolutioninzed everything about what it means to be a business and how we communicate.  Sure it caused pain to some businesses and eliminated outdated business models, but this churn also released trillions of dollars in new economic growth.  Green should dwarf the Internet in terms of impact.

With that said, this ride is going to change our lifestyle a lot more than most of us are thinking.  As Professor McKibben puts it in a paragraph that is worth reading several times:

For the moment, watching gas prices roll relentlessly higher, we’re transfixed by the slightly terrifying novelty of it all. But it won’t take long for these changes to become permanent realities. This shift will change our sense of identity and expectation more than anything that’s happened in decades.

I couldn’t have possibly said that better myself.  No really, not a chance.