by Nanci Arvizu

Created on: October 30, 2008   Last Updated: April 03, 2012

Energy costs are getting out of control. The cost of gas is the top news story every day. The price of a barrel of oil went over $100.

And, we survived it. We not only survived it, but in changing the way we live, we were able to push the cost of gas back down, almost to where it was this time last year. It's like we gave a collective "finger" to the oil barons of the world.

I'm proud of the U.S. ok, proud of us "common folk" for making such a huge effort to change our ways. We combined trips, or didn't go at all, we bought cars that gave us better gas mileage, and we bought more cars that don't run on gasoline at all. And in doing so, we made a difference.

During the height of the gas crunch, I heard on the radio that pollution was down. Instead of the day being "red flagged" for pollution as it had been in the past, for the first time in many years, that day in particular had its pollution rating in "safe" levels.

We've learned how to drive more economically, accelerating slowly instead of gunning it off the starting line, coasting to stop lights, and this is a big one, slowing down! Just by being mindful of how we use the accelerator, we've been able to up our Miles per Gallon, and extend the time between trips to the fuel station.

We also seemed to have given the airlines and their fat cat CEO's the boot and are cutting back on our air travel. While this has hurt many cities by losing their tourism dollars, it's given us a change to explore our own, and coining a new word, "staycation". We may be conserving, but we're all in need of a break. Why not vacation where you live? Doing so can give us such a different perspective as well as appreciation for our communities and cities in which we live.

Now we are doing the same thing with electricity. We are using CFL bulbs, instead of the old candescent bulbs. We're turning up the thermostat and learning that we can live with the heat, and bundle up during the cold. We're unplugging appliances that we're not using, using power strips as an easy shut off for TV's, DVD players and stereos because we've learned that it takes a lot of energy to make that little red ready light glow when we're not using it.

Our next step with be investing in home solar and wind power. There are companies out there that are making it closer to being affordable for the average home owner to install and use solar panels and wind turbines. The government is actually doing something positive in this area as well, offering tax rebates and credits for those who invest the money in these systems for their own use.

We're using cloth bags to shop, reusable water bottles, and I saw today that there is a company out there using sugar cane waste to make Styrofoam- looking food containers that can biodegrade within 90 days in a compost pile. No oil or trees used either. I've read about people making fuel from algae being grown in the desert. It's just amazed me, what I've seen being created to help us all stop using something that we've been so addicted to for so many years.

Winter is coming, so the next thing we're going to hear from the negative media machine is that heating oil costs are on the rise, and people will have to go without. From what I've seen, we've made positive changes that have shown the world that we can go without and be happy about it.

Way to go everyone.

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