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I am trying to conserve energy and finite natural resources whenever possible in my life. Part of it is to clean the environment, but a lot of it is to reduce the amount of money I spend. I don't want to be a prisoner to oil companies and other companies that know we need their product and we have no other alternative. In a perfect world, I could live off-the-grid in some house where I produce all of my own energy and grow all of my own food (using robots to farm). All the water would be rainwater or from a well. I would use the Sun to heat up water and provide the 400-500 kWh of power I use.
I ride my bike to work and to the store about half the time throughout the year, so while it is saving me 25 cents per mile, it is also the most environmentally friendly way to travel. I planted a garden, so I may produce 1-2% of the food I eat. And I am converting a gas car into an electric one. I pay the extra money to buy renewable power from my power company also. I haven't used my air conditioner in my house yet, just a fan in the window for a few minutes before bed (the outside air temp isn't bad here). This area has plenty of water, so I don't need to do anything.
I think what is going on is there are a lot of different people trying to get consumers to go in different ways. There are the old environmentalists who reduce what they do and alter their lifestyles (which many people don't want to go that far in their life, but feel like other people should). There are the large oil companies that want to make lots of money with some green products but prevent the good technology from being produced (which they bought).
I don't know what the outcome of expensive gas will be in the next few years. If it gets to be $10/gallon, I could see us becoming a much more localized place again.
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