How to Become Sustainable

The first thing that’s necessary to reduce U.S. dependence on fossil fuels and vulnerability to climate change and dwindling resources is to make the automobile an unnecessary commodity for simple tasks such as picking up children at school, finding entertainment, going to work, or buying a cup of coffee. But simply changing infrastructure to pry Americans from their cars won’t cut it. Americans don’t just drive because they have to, but because they want to, and this results from a cultural paranoia ingrained in us since the beginnings of suburbia. It began with the white middle class suburban flight when whites were xenophobic and needed their own exclusive safe haven. Then, during the first Red Scares, as Red Book claims, certain suburban homes were said to be designed in particular ways which could protect a family from an atomic explosion. Suburbia has more than once given Americans a false image of safety, but who would blame people for having this perspective? Red Book christened suburbia paradise for young adults and their children because the neighbors would always be watching and plenty of amenities were available for children. It just seemed safe. However, Americans began fearing things within suburbia too—anything that resembled urban life.

This short historic film, "The House in the Middle" (1954) gives a tutorial on how the average suburban home could be made safe in case of atomic war

Americans obviously do not want to give up their lifestyle which worsens such large-scale problems. However, we must get the word out that regardless of people’s “entitlement” to the agrarian castle life, realizing that retrofitting will cost four times more in the future than now, Americans must make a move quickly. During the 2011 World Energy Outlook forum, an economist from the IEA stated that “we have to, in the next 25 years, find and develop 47 million per day barrels of oil to stay where we are, which means to find and develop two new Middle Easts” (Van der Hoeven ). This frightening prognosis could encourage people to demand a change in our petroleum- addicted society.