Have you ever gotten this email? It talks about how big oil companies are taking advantage of us all, but we can give them what's for. We're all going to pick one oil company, like BP for example, and on Tuesday next week nobody buy gas there. All we have to do is pass this email around to everyone in the United States, then BP will be crippled and retail gas prices will collapse. We will have saved the country.

Never mind that big oil has Billions of dollars in assets. Don't worry about the fact that there are many oil companies and maybe more important many oil markets. I doesn't matter that the price of every oil component is set by a bid market and that the retail product sold today was put into the product pipeline six weeks ago. We can exercise our consumer muscle and whip those oil men into line.

We all know that a one day boycott against one oil brand would not even be a blip on the radar of big oil. Honestly, even if someone could manage to coordinate everyone in the US to boycott gasoline for one day, it wouldn't matter. We'd all fill up the day before or the day after. The 3 day average would likely be no different than any other three day average. The problem is not with the oil companies, although everyone likes to blame them. The problem is with us.

That's right. I said it. We are the ones to blame for our own misery. We are one of the most obese counties in the world and yet we drive to the 7-11 to buy our Big Gulp Slurpies. We love to get out in nature so we put our bicycles on top of our car and drive them to the trail for a bike ride. Then we drive our 60 foot motor home into the woods and start the generator so we can watch TV and run the air conditioner. We drive our children to school even though there is a big yellow bus going by every morning.

It's not totally our fault though. We've had cheap gas for a long time. In fact, compared to the rest of the world, our gas prices are still way down on the list. In England, Germany and most of Western Europe the cost converts to about $9.00 per gallon. The availability of cheap gas and our early development of the automobile have made us a nation desirous of wide open spaces and the freedom to come and go as we please. Our society and infrastructure have developed around this ideal.

We live in houses far away from our neighbors on "estate sized lots". Our schedules are so tightly packed with activities that we have to have our own transportation just to keep up. We live miles away from our jobs and activities and often drive alone in our vehicles, and oh what vehicles we drive. American car manufacturers have focused on large heavy vehicles and Americans have bought them by the thousands: Muscle cars, full size sedans, SUVs, pickup trucks, minivans. Public transportation systems are pitifully lacking in all but the largest cities. Even commerce has succumbed to car culture as our mighty rail systems have gone by the wayside. Nowadays most goods are transported by tractor trailers.

We are addicted. We are addicted to oil. We are addicted to oil in a very real way. You could call it a "Petrochemical dependency". Unless we find and perfect alternate fuel(s), or completely redesign our physical and social infrastructure, our country will never be able to function without oil. Our economy will always be hostage to the price of oil and our fortunes will be inextricably tied to the whims of men like Hugo Chaves and Mahmud Amadenajad. What will it take to bring us to rock bottom? How high will gas prices need to get before we admit that we have a problem and start taking the steps to address the causes rather than complain about the symptoms?

We can't quit cold turkey. The problem is too big to take all in one step. Our whole economy would collapse if suddenly there was no more oil. To continue the metaphor we have to take it one day at a time, one step at a time. One of those steps is discovering and developing alternate fuel sources. We will always need energy in a developed society. It would be naïve to think that we could maintain the lifestyle we now enjoy without it.

Oil is basically a liquid packed with portable energy. You carry it around in your gas tank and use it to run your car. We have promising alternatives in things like ethanol, methanol and bio-diesel. (Check out this hub for more on ethanol) They would allow us to stick with our well developed internal combustion engine infrastructure. There are still problems and these things need to be developed further, but they are a step in the right direction.

Batteries also carry portable energy but for electric engines. They can be recharged in many ways, just like putting gas in the tank. Electric engines are far more efficient, meaning they get a lot of workout of the energy they use, but batteries are still very heavy and expensive. The amount of energy that can be stored is limited and so is the travel range of electric vehicles. Hybrids combine the two for efficient long range vehicles.

Next we have to take older outdated systems offline and bring on newer more efficient systems. Now I'm not saying everyone needs to run out and buy a new car, but next time you're in the market, consider a flex fuel or hybrid vehicle or consider downsizing. We must demand that our auto manufacturers give us more choices. I'd love to buy American, but with row after row of pick up trucks and SUVs, it's hard to find something I want.

We must demand that our elected officials take their hands out of the pockets of big auto and big oil long enough to vote for better fuel efficiency rules called CAFÉ standards. Auto manufacturers produce cars to sell in the US and cars which get better mileage to sell in Europe. They're the same models, but with better mileage to meet European standards.

Developing these ideas and discovering more energy sources/technologies can lead to a future without our petrochemical dependency. But where does that leave us now, today, when gas is topping $4.00 per gallon? What can we do to ease the impact of higher gas prices right now? Let's organize a gas boycott! I know, I know. I said earlier that a gas boycott won't work, but I have a plan.

For a gas boycott to bring down prices, it has to be sustained. If we want to be able to sustain a gas boycott, we're going to have to also include (gasp!) a car boycott (cue dramatic music). We have to take responsibility for decreasing our own individual dependency on oil. If you live in an area with effective public transit, you are so lucky! Use it! A well utilized public transit system consumes far less energy per person mile than personal transport and produces far fewer emissions.

If your kids can ride a bus or safely walk to school, don't drive them. This is an amazing thing to me. Until recently my kids have always ridden the bus. When the school district redrew the boundary lines we lost access to bussing and since my kids live in two households switching schools was not an option. When I started driving my kids to school I found it was a madhouse. There were half empty busses arriving on one side of the building and hundreds (literally) of cars dropping kids off on the other. I appreciate that there are many individual situations, but I suspect many of these parents are driving the kids to school just because they can.

Tune up the old bicycle. If your commute to work is reasonable, walk or ride your bike. It'll make you healthier, save you money and help save environment. Try it on the weekend. Get on your bike at home and ride toward your office. If you can get there on your bike in a reasonable time try it for a week and see how it goes. If you're going out for a few items at the store, put a basket on your bike and ride there. By the way, ordering pizza for delivery doesn't conserve gas it just conserves YOUR gas.

This is one of those things that seems so logical, but plan your trips. I often find when I'm running errands I'm crisscrossing my own path. I follow the list back and forth instead of organizing the list into a circuit. With a little planning, you can even do anytime errands while you're out making other unavoidable trips. Drop off the dry cleaning or return the movie on the way to or from work.

If the kids are going to hockey practice across town, don't drive home then back to pick her up. Take a book and have a quiet hour to yourself or take some work and get it out of the way. Better yet find out who else lives in your neighborhood and share rides. Ride sharing applies to your work commute as well. Every time you get in your car, stop for a minute and think. If I planned a little bit could I avoid using my car for this trip or make it more efficient. Keep a notebook in the car to jot down ideas for boycotting your car.

If you boycott your car, then you can start to boycott the gas station too. Save money, reduce your carbon footprint, retain the value of your car, save on maintenance costs and improve your health. If we all start doing this the demand for gasoline will decrease and prices will start to fall. That's the way the "boycott" becomes effective.

I'd love to hear other ideas for boycotting your car.