Hey Mike. Maybe we should start burying more dinosaurs and plants to make more oil! Much more practical would be to get the Dept of Agriculture to make itself useful and control what our farmers are growing. We are in a major mess now because farmers are switching to growing corn for fuel to make more money. Wheat(for flour) and corn(for eating) are no longer being grown because there is much more profit in corn for fuel. We will not beable to afford bread shortly! Pizza companies are already reporting their flour costing 3-4 times more because of this. We need to start preserving our vanishing farmlands and regulate what is grown to keep our citizens fed. This is one place where the government actually needs to be involved. Instead of corn for fuel plants like switch grass should be grown since it produces more fuel than corn. Land management is every bit as necessary as managing all of our other resources. One other note on plants is if we grow more the CO2 problem will lessen also. As I have harped on before we also need to control and reduce the human population of this planet before mother nature decides to. Too many people is a major part of “Global Warming”. We are not much different than rats when it comes to population problems.
When you are talking about everyone driving less it all comes back down to decent, reliable public transportation. I would suggest monorail mag-lev trains and electric buses to feed them in most cities. Whatever is used it has to be powered by renewable clean resources(electric in other words). All of these ideas must be used to create more American employment to help our economy. If we plan to make our economy more stable we need to do as much as we can by ourselves. That is one of the main reasons for WalMart’s success. They use only their own trucks, own warehouses, own wholesalers, etc. to keep all their expenses under control. We have grown far to large to continue to allow the internal growth of our country to be random. Instead of taking over farmlands to build more homes we need to reclaim older rundown neighborhoods for those new homes. Recycling needs to go to even larger scales.
Humm! I think I got somewhat lost in my train of thoughts. MS is definitely a bitch! I have run out of energy myself. you have a good one Mike! I am off to a nap!

Mike, I really do not particularly care for the government programs. However if we leave some of these things to random chances we stand to have major problems. Whether we subsidize or not the farmers will migrate to the most profitable crops and the things that control what those are, are not very controllable. Just like immigration, people will go to what floats their boats (and other adult toys) or survival. Growth(which we both agree is dangerous) has been random for the entire life of our country. There needs to be a planning commision of some sort to help guide any growth from here on. This is definitely an effect of over-population as well as the growth-driven economy. Just as capitalism needs controls to keep it from rambling out of control so too does our inevitable filling out of our countries terra firma. I do not think it would be very popular with people if we chose to start eliminating groups of them to stop the violent effects crowding produces. It would be much easier to manage the land that they live on and produces their food.
Mass transportation would definitely work best in cities/population centers. Since that is where the most consumption of fuel and pollution is generated it does make sense. Rural areas will need to make do with hybrids or electric vehicles. Whether we like it or not we are entering a “brave” new world and we had better adapt to it since I am pretty sure it will not adapt to us. The consequences of not adapting can be rather brutal. Have a good one Mike!

Hey Mike, That is why we have to change government, in particular the people we allow to run the government. Term limits, monitoring electees wealth accounts, easier recalls, improved monitoring and publication of voting records and decisions, etc. There need to be more professionals employed to help direct and control the actions taken by the government. We have been run by amateurs for far too long.
As far as what will be grown they need to encourage farmers(or more accurately, the corporations) with incentives more than forcing compliance. We are far to overgrown to continue to allow everything to continue by chance. This needs to be a part of the stabilization of our economy. Have a good one Mike!