This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion, but considering the long, long bill of environmental consequences we've been accruing, in my humble opinion it would have been better if we'd been paying $4 a gallon for gas ten years ago. Granted, this would have meant making troublesome and expensive changes in the ways we do things, but we will have to do that now, anyway.

We can make things somewhat better by choosing our own priorities carefully, and by going out of our way to be thoughtful and generous to those who are having greater difficulties than we are.

The Europeans have been paying much higher gas prices than we have for years now. Guess what? Their societies have chosen to provide abundant and reliable public transportation and cars that get high gas mileage. Ours hasn't.