It's about time we paid more for gas in North America, and got over our juvenile, selfish, irresponsible infatuation with size, horsepower and freeways. (People need to be able to live near where they work -- cities must be designed/revamped: enough soul-less suburbs!)
The Europeans have been paying significantly more than us for their gas for years, and they are way ahead of us re fuel-efficient vehicles, mass transit, alternate energy, etc.
As environmental degradation increased, what did the average American or Canadian do? Bought a Humvee, a huge 4 x 4, SUV, etc (and gas-powered, noisy weed whackers, leaf blowers and snow blowers, for f*ck's sake)! We pile bird and insect-killing chemicals on our anal-retentive, water sucking "golf-course" lawns, and do our best to erradicate the hardy, native, low/no-maintenance CO2-converting plants that
want to grow there.
Are we total idiots? (rhetorical question
)
We selfish little all-consuming, polluting pr*cks need to stop whining, think of our kids (and their kids) and grow up! Your kid has asthma, and you drive a big SUV, eh? Make the connection, Einstein!
BTW, the good ol' Land o' the Free (USA) creates 25% of the world's greenhouse gases, and Canadians consume more energy per capita than anyone else.
Now, some here will
conveniently choose not to "believe in" man-driven climate change (those respected scientists
the world over are really just lining their own pockets with this "gloal warming" sham -- yeah, right!), but that's just pure greed and selfishness. These types won't change their ways until
forced to do so, and higher gas prices just might make a few trade in that Hummer for a sedan, walk more (gawd forbid), or even
buy a shovel and rake....
Imagine that.
(Rant over!)
Edited by Peter Rideout - May 18 2006 at 13:29