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Sometimes it feels like climbing Mount Everest when addressing the problems we as a society impose on ourselves. As we continue to breathe the foul air and drink the chemically treated water, one has to wonder what it will take to get us out of our predicament. If Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie Simpson represent the typical suburban American family, it means that the road to a healthier and sustainable way of life in North America won't come without a struggle.

Unless brought face to face with a crisis situation most Americans prefer to continue their life in the best way they know how, that is, along that path of least resistance. The time this will alter is when the cost of living in the normal fashion becomes intolerable. Only once the cost of gasoline hits critically high levels, and heating and energy costs spiral out of control, will most Americans truly begin to consider other factors in the energy equation involving more efficient vehicles, better insulated homes, real conservation measures, and serious recycling efforts. This may seem like a harsh assessment, but drawing from past personal experience, this appears to be where we're at.

In a society where political popularity is gained by maintaining the status quo, it is certainly hard for politicians to propose bold new measures to head off environmentally induced hardships that loom sometime in the future. Some people still think it is a conspiracy on the part of oil companies to make more money. Municipal political campaign slogans such as "taking back the city" imply change by a return to better times, but can this realistically be achieved if we keep doing what we are doing, even if all levels of government kicked in their fair share of tax money for that purpose? Or do our urban troubles run deeper than this? Are grid-lock and suburban sprawl more profound in their nature than the increased efficiency of our highways can solve?

The solutions to our cities' problems need to have a two-pronged approach. First there needs to be a focus on maximizing the efficiencies of what already exists. Californians after their last major electrical power crisis demonstrated how much can be saved by relatively painless, but conscious conservation efforts. Thinking more about using less proved to be a small price to pay for dealing with California's energy crisis in the short-term. Interestingly it also inspired other measures that helped to clean up the air to an extraordinary degree.

Secondly, there needs

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