The big news today is Al Gore's speech at an energy conference in Washington, where he called on the United States to drop its reliance on carbon-based fuels within the next ten years. As Gore points out, and there are expert studies that support his position, we already have the technological means to achieve what appears at first glance to be an enormously ambitious goal. 

The problem, of course, is that implementing the necessary measures to improve energy efficiency and shift to renewable energy is fundamentally a political, cultural, and psychological problem, not a scientific or engineering challenge. It's a question of whether we're willing to move forward rather than remain stuck in the past.

Gore's observation that Americans are "borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet" drives right to the heart of the matter. 

Connecting the dots in these ways is absolutely crucial if we are to overcome the political and personal inertia standing in the way of getting the U.S. back on track. Even if you don't buy the notion that fossil fuels are responsible for the destabilization of the global climate system, it's hard to argue persuasively that the pursuit of oil at all costs has been healthy for the U.S. as a nation and a society.

The mentality that "that's our oil under their sand," as much as any single factor, is responsible for expanding American imperial ambitions in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, and the corresponding decline of American democracy. Beyond this, however, the near fanatical adherence to the political economy of petroleum has stultified the American genius for innovation and entrepreneurship and undermined the American dream.  It's led to the militarization of our economy, the unraveling of our health and education systems, and the breakdown of our cities and transportation infrastructure.

Another report out of Washington today, almost lost in the hubbub over Gore's call to arms, makes clear just how dire the situation is in the U.S. The first ever American Human Development Report, published by Columbia University and the Social Science Research Council, reveals the extent to which dramatic inequalities have become a central feature of the American landscape.

Just one example: the American Human Development Index, developed for this report, shows that "people in last-ranked Mississippi are living 30 years behind those in first-ranked Connecticut." Thirty years. Think about that for a minute. Three decades. One generation. How did that happen?

See if you can wrap your head around this one:  there's a gap of 50 years between the life expectancy of Asian-American males and African Americans. Not so long ago, in the early 20th century, the average life expectancy of Americans in general was 50 years. Now it's the difference between how long members of two key ethnic groups live in the U.S.  How could one group make such progress and the other one get left so far behind?

Things don't get much better when you compare overall trends in the U.S. with the rest of the world. Even though the U.S. is still one of the wealthiest countries in human history, it currently ranks 34th in infant survival rates and 42nd in global life expectancy. And even though only 5 percent of the world's population lives in the U.S., 24 percent of the world's prisoners are locked up in American jails.

Stark reminders all that sustainability is just as much about human health and social equity as it is about forging a new relationship with the natural world. Whether it's peak oil, climate change, freign policy, or our education and healthcare systems, questions about how we should move forward loom large.  We're at that proverbial fork in the road and we're gonna take it, whether we want to or not. The real question is, what happens after that?