Sustainability regarding both energy and commodity consumption has to be more of an issue in the upcoming presidential and congressional elections. Whether you are paying record prices for gas (hopefully you consider using public transit if it’s available and you do not already) or you see the price of pretty much everything creep up slowly (and sometimes quickly!), you may see that your bank account is dwindling. You also may not be making more money than you were last year or the year before that, especially when you adjust for inflation.

So this campaign season, when you get out and talk to the candidates for different offices, call them, or write them, let them know you care and that you expect for them to talk about the environment, sustainability, real world ways to reduce energy consumption, and that you expect them to put their plans into place, once in office. We’ll all benefit from a cleaner environment, better managed energy resources, and the intelligent use of commodities. But we have to keep it on their radar!

Before we even get near the potential solutions related to the transportation problem, we have to look at the myriad problems related to transportation in the United States.

Right now, the most common ways people travel in the United States for long distances continues to be by airplane and car. Even short distance traveled in the United States continues to be dominated by personal vehicles rather than rapid mass transit.

Partly, this is due to “rapid” being left out of the “mass transit” that is present in small and large cities. It’s difficult to have people believe in investments in the infrastructure necessary for new rail lines and more bus routes before there is a large enough mass of people willing to take advantage. But in the meantime, people feel compelled to use their personal cars, SUVs, and other means to get where they’re going, whether recreation or work on time, because it otherwise feels like rolling the dice on arriving promptly.

I am most excited to present the debut of “The Green Deal,” EnviroHumanImpact’s latest series! This series of articles will detail a modern, commonsense approach to tackling some of the main environmental problems faced in the United States.

Why the U.S.? We know many of our readers are from other countries, but we are based in the States and can better talk about the problems here and potential solutions. The U.S. is the world’s number one polluter, also, so let’s start with the biggest problem here. No, we won’t pretend these are the only answers to these vast problems, but rather a set of proposals to spark interest and thought on these problems that many may accept as facts of life. They do not have to be!