Once energy problems gain traction, there will be a large new class of economic losers, and consequently a lot of social turbulence.

The task we face is reorganizing the systems we depend on for daily life in a way that is consistent with the realities coming down at us.

Once energy problems gain traction, there will be a large new class of economic losers, and consequently a lot of social turbulence.

The "Green" community, the enviro people, are preoccupied with running all the cars differently. Our techno-grandiosity has us gibbering about high-speed rail - which we don't have the capital for anymore - but nobody is interested in repairing the existing rail system, which would be far less costly and hugely beneficial for us. In short, we are acting cluelessly. And life is tragic. The clueless usually suffer.

The industrial age is over. What follows will be life lived on a much smaller and finer scale.

It is true that we need a consensus to go forward with restoring passenger rail in America, and often a consensus is formed by political action, via government. That is all true. But we have no such consensus, and no one in government or politics these days has the will or the force of personality or perhaps even the understanding of the situation to get on with job of forming a consensus supporting rail.

The two elements of the suburban pattern that cause the greatest problems are the extreme separation of uses and the vast distances between things