I can easily bike and walk since I live in a city, so I don’t have to worry about purchasing fuel to get to school or work. As a result, I save money, and I can afford to do most activities that more and more Americans are being forced to scale back. Furthermore, if I were a family man with kids, husband, or wife, in addition to a commute, I would defiantly purchase a fuel-efficient car to drive, because it is responsible to do so. Actually, being a cognizant and proactive person, I would have purchased a fuel-efficient car long before the problem began to dominate my life.

People argue that they feel safe in an SUV. However, the safety argument is a farce, because the false sense of security is easily disproved or made apparent by the many individuals and families that do drive fuel-efficient cars.

SUVs are simply irresponsible, and we need to be more cognizant of what we want to leave future generations, including our children. Some of my legitimate worries include: Depleted, irresponsibly used, or squandered oil reserves in addition to an atmosphere full of greenhouse gases. Our future generations will inherent these environmental, social, and political maladies if we are not proactive in our decision-making.

It is our duty to leave future generations a healthy civilization and environment. High energy prices give rise to desperation and crime. Currently, people are siphoning fuel from cars, fueling stations and even boats. Not surprisingly, people are trading sex for fuel. Government workers are not even immune from temptation (considering all the record keeping and oversight I noticed while working twice for the federal government), since public workers have been caught stealing fuel from the state and taxpayers. Additionally, a “firefighter [has even been] accused of using a fire station account to purchase gas for his personal vehicle….”

We must preserve our natural resources and improve environmental quality because these issues are directly related to social unrest and threaten our democracy. However, we politicize environmental and social issues, but more Americans are realizing that themes of environmentalism such as living in a cleaner environment, using renewable resources, and preserving nature and its natural resources are indispensable. As a result, more people are realizing that environmentalism should not be casually written off as an uninformed agenda or irrational ideology.