Wendell Berry is a farmer and author who writes on issues of agriculture, the environment, and sustainability. In his 1997 essay “Energy in Agriculture,” he blames the rise of fossil fuels for the damaging shift from family farms to industrial agriculture. He then connects this transformation in agricultural practices to the all-conmsuming oil addiction that is slowly bringing America to her knees – calling it theft from future generations.

My brother is an environmental chemist. I asked him to name the one best thing that the typical American could do to help the environment. His answer: “Live closer to where you work”. It was a surprising response, given all of the focus in recent years on developing alternative energies. But when I sat down and did the math, his suggestion made perfect sense.

Some places in the United States are aware of the need for post-petroleum transportation, and local governments are taking action to encourage bicycle travel. There’s even a friendly rivalry developing between two of most forward-looking cities.

Targeted boycotts are problematic. Saying “don’t patronize this company” or “don’t support anyone who supports that idea” merely shifts the money from one big corporation to another big corporation. This tactic might temporarily punish one company, but it does little or nothing to change the overall atmosphere of corporate greed that is the real problem.

From the inner city to the sprawling suburb to the isolated rural community, our entire nation is designed around the assumption that everyone uses a car to get from point A to point B. But all of these areas will have to rethink their methods of transportation if our society is to survive and thrive in the coming century.

Our distorted form of individualism has led us to brink of disaster, and it prevents us from understanding our own culpability. The oil industry lives and breathes because we continue to buy their gas. The government turns a blind eye to their negligence because we as citizens don’t hold them accountable. But somehow, we as citizens and consumers see ourselves as victims rather than partners in the crime.

Our love affair with our cars has also been fueled by the devious actions of a few major corporations. The once ubiquitous electric streetcar was driven into the ground by colloboration of Big Oil and Big Auto. It wasn’t a fair fight.

Given the obvious unsustainability of our current transportation system, why do we continue down the path of more cars and more roads? The answer is simple. We live in an undeniable car culture. For more than 100 years, America has been in love with the autmobile.

In the coming months, there will be a series of articles on the Seminal called “Driven to Destruction.” It will unearth some of the sordid history of how the country became so car-dependent, how this dependency has become harmful in so many ways, and how we can begin to move forward to a more sane and sustainable system of transportation.