About 120 years ago how did everyone get around? How did we get food to the city? Lucky people had a horse and buggy. Others walked. Steam engines powered trains and some ships. It was messy in the streets from all these horses pooping everywhere. In New York City they had to wear bags in the back. Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, Park Avenue could get a bit slippery not to mention all the smells. Plus there were 400,000 dead horses to deal with every year.

So along comes the neat little gallon of gas that could be poured into a nice neat car and it was so clean and easy. Very quickly the horses disappeared and cars and trucks soon took over.

We traded the grass and grain eating animal for a metal engine fueled with ancient dead ferns. Dead ferns? Yes, gas comes from huge pockets of dead ferns and dinosaurs stored underground.

Little did we know how popular cars would become. Fires in stoves were replaced by natural gas. Big buildings were suddenly easy to heat and cool. Energy from petroleum fueled the 20th century and totally transformed everything in our lives.

Today we have a new great challenge. We won’t have all this petroleum forever and, at the same time, it has become in tremendous demand. The pollution from burning all this energy from old dead ferns is choking our skies.

How can we use less energy and still be comfortable? Just becoming very careful with our energy usage will make a huge difference. You’ve seen those new curly looking light bulbs. That’s an easy way. How do you use energy and how can you use less?