Dear Sir/Madam,

I wasn't aware before reading "Stirrings on Fuel" in Sunday's NYT that "in 1992 Bill Clinton, prodded by Al Gore, promised to raise fuel economy to 45 miles per gallon and then backed away when President Bush's father accused him of jeopardizing millions of American jobs". 

Pondering upon it now makes me feel like crying. That might have been a turning point in American and world history, the point where we actually started to wake up and face up to our addiction to oil and the non-sustainable economy and lifestyles it has engendered.

Instead, we turned away and continued burying our heads in the sand. And here we are now, 12 years later, still with our heads pressed firmly into the sand and the tsunami of approaching doom (climatic and ecological disruption, dwindling natural resources) looming ever larger on the horizon. 

The larger it gets the more terrifying it seems, so the more firmly we press our heads into the sand. Until it engulfs us and we can deny it no longer. But then it will be too late to save ourselves. We can only hope that a few survivors will be washed up on higher ground and that they will be able to make a fresh start with enough knowledge and wisdom not to make the same mistakes again.