Originally Posted by Koffee Brown
...More people driving electric cars would definitely cut back on our consumption and dependence on oil. ...
More people driving electric cars only addresses the
symptoms of our (USA) oil dependence, not the root cause. Those electric cars have to be recharged somehow, and the bulk of our electricity is still generated from oil and other fossil fuels. (
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electri.../table1_1.html) Don't get me wrong, the shift to electric/hybrid vehicles is a step in the right direction, but it's still a far cry from the radical change of thought and technology necessary to wean us from our wanton and profligate consumption of fossil fuels. I agree, more could and should be done to move the US away from our oil crutch. If we can put people in space, why can't we get super efficiency out of a PV panel? Our dependence on fossil fuels is likewise a marker of just how short-term our society thinks.
A book folks might be interested in that goes more into the fundamental flaws in the way current society thinks about the stuff we make and own is:
Cradle to Cradle: Rethinking the Way We Make Things, by William McDonough and Michael Braungart.
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http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...17550?v=glance)