Letter: Changes on the horizon

EDITOR,
Many of you are probably freaking out at the constantly escalating prices of gasoline these days. My advice: Don’t be afraid. We are knee-deep in a major energy-lifestyle shift in America. We are 4 percent of the world’s population, yet we consume 30 to 40 percent of the world’s energy and resources. This is coming to an end. The days of the gas-guzzler are over. This is a time for most of you to get out of your fat trucks and SUVs and start seriously thinking of adapting to the new green economic transition that, hopefully, will come as painlessly and quickly as possible.
I know a lot of you aren’t going to like this, but here’s what’s coming in the new world; a one child per family policy (enforced), electric cars, trucks and buses, vegetarian diets, solar rooftop photovoltaic energy grids, local food and hemp production, mandatory recycling and conservation of scarce resources, mandatory taxes on the rich (to lift the poor and homeless out of poverty), and a much more simple and frugal lifestyle overall. Hopefully we can retain our primary constitutional freedoms and civil liberties (the First and Fourth amendments), our unique cultural attributes, and the best of our information and communication technologies (smart phones, iPods, iPads, digital TVs, wireless Internet, etc.) in this historic transition. But the main thing to remember is that the current energy and resource consumption pattern we all live by is broken and unsustainable. An end to high energy prices, the cost of living and food (and just about everything else) requires an end to the current energy scarcity paradigm. Once we stabilize this vital aspect of our lives, we can return to our normal, healthy and happy states of being.
Paul Taylor, Soquel