I was watching a TV commercial the other evening that was touting a sports bar that claimed to have 100 TV screens. The next morning I was walking by a whole row of taxis with idling engines sending fumes into the air. And that evening I listened to my nephew wash dishes which seemed to be an exercise in using as much water as possible to prepare dishes to go into a dishwasher. Relatively cheap energy and a willingness to sacrifice the future for present gratification have turned us into a country of wasters. It makes you want to cry: Where are the energy and waste police when you need them?

I guess the answer to the above question is that we all are and have to be the energy and waste police. So this morning I am writing this and letters to the bar in question as well as the DC taxi agency. And tonight I will work with my nephew on the concept of scraping dishes rather than using the hydrological method.

The US Department of Energy once released an estimate on the potential energy savings resulting from behavioral changes and it was something like 40-50 percent. It was all simple stuff like turning off the lights, recycling, buying Energy Star appliances, coordinating trips to the store, using CFLs, shorter showers, and a host of other actions regularly discussed here at Greenopolis. No hair shirts or living in caves.

But someone has to push it. Someone has to stick out the first recycling barrel and someone has to walk across the parking lot and ask the mother waiting for her child at school to turn off her idling car or better yet have the child take the bus or ride a bike. And many someones have to teach, encourage and even cajole friends, family, co-workers and perfect strangers into taking all of this seriously and getting a handle on energy use and waste. So become an energy and waste police person today. You are all officially deputized!