You know the bad news already--it's been all over the news this morning and last night. There is nothing I can do, except to provide a little bit of good news, in the energy field.
First, the average New York City resident has a carbon footprint one-third the size of the average American's. A lot of people chalk this up to density, but I have a different answer: accessibility, or the number of places a person can get to within short distances. If you're a big city, the only way to be accessible is through density. But if you're not a big city, if you're a small city like Springfield, maybe you can simply get a little denser, and allow for mixed use.
Second, Pittsburgh's Green Building Alliance has been extremely successful in bringing green building to Steel City.
Third, here's some choice excerpts from a Wall Street Journal story on how, for the past 30 years, Denmark has kept its per capita energy use stable while doubling its GDP. Hopefully, this is the end of the idea that rising economic growth requires rising energy use.
Be to good to everybody you meet today.