Americans threw away their communities in order to save a few dollars on hair dryers and plastic food storage tubs, never stopping to reflect on what they were destroying.

There is not going to be a "hydrogen economy," and no combination of alternative energy systems or fuels will allow us to continue the suburban pattern. It's finished. We will, however, desperately need to grow more of our food closer to home, and so the preservation of agricultural hinterlands is of great importance. But don't expect the fiesta of suburban construction to continue more than a few more years.

When a society is stressed, when it comes up against things that are hard to understand, you get a lot of delusional thinking.

Suburbia is not going to run on biodiesel. The easy-motoring tourist industry is not going to run on biodiesel, wind power and solar fuel.

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

We will have to make new arrangements, or revive bygone ones. We may, for another example, see the return of the boarding house.

The living arrangements American now think of as normal are bankrupting us economically, socially, ecologically and spiritually.