A "crisis comparable to the World Wars" is most almost a given, if Americans start doing nothing to reduce their oil and gas usage.

Of course that's not the way you sell it. Get a crack team of propagandists, marketeers and advertisers in a room together, and I bet they could come up with a campaign to convince Americans that driving big cars is uncool, public transport is "in", and wasting oil is as bad as littering or smoking. And it would cost a fraction of what the alternatives imply, even if you had to pay off compensation to big oil and big auto companies.

Right on. No problem at all. Done in 6 months.

Or a decade.

Actively attempting to sway public opinion takes time, but I don't think there's any question that it can be done.

Mind you, last night I couldn't help noticing that one of our government-sponsored ads for cutting back on electricity usage "to help prevent climate change" was wedged between an ad for a plasma TV and an ad for a 4WD/SUV-type vehicle. The sad thing is that there will be viewers that will buy a new plasma TV and a new SUV, then think that switching off unused lights, or turning the A/C down a little will somehow compensate.

Its taken two decades of constant marketing to get us to being good consumers so I doubt they could come up with something that would convince us otherwise in less time..