Lately, as I’m sure we’ve all noticed, my conversations have seemed to focus around one very frustrating and yet possibly trivial subject. . . the price of gas. Living in a tourist industry town such as Panama City Beach, our prices on anything are subject to change not just based on holiday, but seasons and sometimes high traffic afternoons. A busy afternoon can see a raise in gas by at least 17 cents. Memorial Day weekend was not withstanding. Thursday before the big weekend we were grumbling at an astonishing $3.89 a gallon, and not by three short hours later as it ticked down to Memorial Friday, we made the jump of 11 cents.
Now at times like these we wonder “what to do?”, and our answers are usually the same: Carpool, drive less, walk more, complain tons more, boycott. However that is “big city” thinking.
While perusing blogs and Green updates for delicious green media for you, my lovely Greenlings, media sprouts, and concerned consumers, i came across one in particular that not only tickled me, but also gave me hope. It was a post written by Mommy Greenest for National Geographic’s Green Guide (http://www.thegreenguide.com) about a conversational trend. She, like I and the rest of us, had noticed the change in conversation. At the market she discussed raising gas prices instead of the weather, while at her children’s play dates they discussed gas prices instead of their children’s most recent achievements. She, like I, was starting to feel a sense of monotony imposed on us by the tyrants of the fuel industry. And then she found hope.
She states that it is a 21st Century Gold Rush. A small town in Arizona is fired up about gas prices and the promise of alternative fuels. Where we grumble and complain about prices and the sacrifices we must make to cope, they are formulating and producing products and ideas to counter balance the new fuel fight. Perhaps the ingenuity of these people will help make the reign of the combustion engine a bad memory in a matter of years. But to ensure the forward motion of this beautiful Gold Rush, perhaps we should ban together and help. Instead of fighting back with harsh words and lengthy boycotts and pickets, take up a bit of side researching. Together we can help end the tyranny of the combustion engine. The UK has started, and so has the midwest. .what do you say? Should we hop on the train finally?
