Mr. Gingrich says. "Our culture favors driving long distances in powerful vehicles and the car as a social expression."

"Our culture favors driving long distances in powerful vehicles and the car as a social expression."

Wow, Mr. Gingrich, how 20th-Century of you...

At the gas station around the corner from my house, the cheap stuff is going for $4.59 a gallon. At that price, nobody's going to favor driving anywhere.

I know about pounds of carbon per mile. I really do. And yet it changes little about how and what I do.

Just this morning, I'm driving a carpool of kids from one suburb to another for a summer day camp. At least it's a carpool, not two cars. But to make the same journey by bus (going from suburb to suburb is feindishly difficult) would take about an hour and a half. And schlepping four kids ages 6-10 on the bus. In the car, it's about 25 minutes.

Time wins over carbon every time. I know I'm not the only one this way.

A few minor things change. I'm spending the morning in a coffee shop to work rather than driving home and back. I'm trying to bike more. But the changes I'm making in my life are miniscule compared to what we ought to do.

Conspicuous Consumption

"...Gingrich battled efforts to modulate demand through tools like increased gas taxes..."

Ridiculous. You can't fix everything with taxes. You have to address the underlying causes and problems.

Yes, more is definitely more. At a time when most of us are obese, Taco Bell has launched a campaign to get us all to eat one more meal per day. That says it all. But it's not a cultural expression--please, spare me--it's just a bad habit. People will change when they're hit hard enough in the wallet. As for me, I'm saving gas and money by eating my Fourthmeal at home in front of the tv.

Whether you like it or not don't stab the messenger. It's a big country with very long distances. Though I would be the first one to request that all the pointy heads in Salon Francisco be barred from traveling east of the Rockies so as to save precious resources, or, if you must, ride a bike. Even your 80 year old grandma.

Were we not treated a few months back to a yet another long boring Gary Kamiya poem to the Sierra Nevadas and the long road trip he regularly takes up there?

Is a Chinese thing, at least when I was growing up in Taiwan.....

Bagels are twice the size today as they were 20 years ago. I say this on a health web site that was showing how proportions have changed for the bigger in the last 20 years. I have suspected something was up with the bagel, but the size was really small back then.

I suspect that it there is something psychological working here. Maybe we perceive that something bigger is worth a lot, and the marginal cost to make something bigger is not as much as our perceived increase in value. Thus, more profit. For example, when I go into a restaurant, I seem to be less frustrated at higher prices for the food, if there are larger portions. Which I, of course, feel I must eat to get my money's worth, which is why I was looking at a health web site.

As for the Japanese and everyone else, they will catch on. Those not too young will remember that a job in Japan once lasted for life -- no layoffs. Not any more.

We can drive long distances and spend far less fuel than we do now. Why that is not perceived as a reality by some folks is beyond me.

Hybrid cars and SUVs can be luxurious, powerful, and attractive and can get 25 (or more) mpg at 65 mph.

Almost without fail, when domestic carmakers complain that higher mileage requirements "cannot be met" Honda produces a new model that meets and often surpasses the new requirements.

The large American SUVs are built using technology from the 1940s. Heavy steel bodies sitting on heavy steel truck frames powered by huge, cast iron V8 engines, with huge truck-style front ends (the macho image, you know), fat tires and never used rooftop cargo racks is obsolete technology but Detroit keeps building them anyway.

A two and a half ton SUV is not needed to transport a large family. It is possible to build a vehicle large enough that weighs less, has as much interior room, and is powerful enough to meet all highway conditions.

But it's not a cultural expression--please, spare me--it's just a bad habit.

No, it's advertising and the corporate need to create demand for more sales.

They've trained up to believe that it's an American right to over-indulge. But this is a new phenomenon, just in the last decade. I was in the ad business in the 80's, and even in that period of 'greed is good,' the corporations had barely scratched the surface of creating sales out of ad copy alone. Think "shampoo, repeat". Those of you shampooing twice are using twice as much product and making the company twice as much profit out of that one little word. No wonder ads for Fourthmeal have us going to bed with full stomachs (and waking up obese).

Is moderated by cost. Gas has been relatively cheap in the US (compared to Europe) so people bought big cars and got in the habit of driving far.

Adjustments are always painful.

It must mean you're taking the time and money to eat out. Perhaps you need to dial back on that.

By the way, big or small, the US could save as much as fuel as forcing everyone into hybrids by simply dictating the gross weight of all passenger vehicles down by a small amount, say 10%. Pound for pound American passenger vehicles are twice as efficient as 20 years ago. Problem is they weigh twice as much. My Camry, empty is 3000 lbs. That would be a BIG car 20 years ago. It's almost 800 lbs more than my 88 Corolla. Now setting aside the fact that some of that is in the form of additional safety requirements, there's still a great deal of buffer to pare weight down.