As a long-term believer in Green Politics, i've been dismayed by the direction the country has gone for the last 20 years. While i can do plenty to reduce our family's imact on the planet, only a large scale social movement will ensure the political leaders hear the message loud and clear. It's very hard to get the message across though, with all the noise of other bad things happening, but if we don't, many of the other concerns we all work on will become moot. I've been a full-time bike commuter since 1978, aside from a period of a year in 1983 and once more in the late 80s; i also like bike touring as a way to see the country, though i've not been too active there since my daughter arrived on the scene. I love trains! I just wish i had more opportunity to ride them in the Seattle area. they could make so much difference to our culture and energy efficiency; that's one of the biggest thing i've missed since leaving the UK - good public rail service. and public footpaths - what a shame there's almost no transit to anywhere to hike around there... so, i've been doing some bike 'n hike trips. I'm attempting to indoctrinate our daughter in the biking thing too - every way we cycle to her school together on our 3rd wheel trailer bike. A couple of years ago, we installed PV panels on our roof, which has inspired me to cut out as much of our electricity consumption as possible, and driven my wife crazy. But, our net consumption is now down around 75% to around 500kWhr per year. Now, if i could just get permission to swap out those bulbs in the kitchen...