I was so happy to read this post.  I have recently moved to FL to build a green house from scratch.  We visited the Edison Ford Winter Estates in Ft. Myers to look at the old florida style. Anyway, they have a great museum etc. with pictures of Edison, Ford, Firestone and President Harding sitting out on one of their weekend camping trips in the wilderness.  It ocurred to me what a different future we could potentially have now if our president spent intimate time with today's top green/sustainable innovators, inventors etc.  The irony was also outstanding as it jumped out that these guys were hard core nature lovers.  Their own homes were built for most part passive sustainable as old florida homes had to be to exist comfortably with nature.  The larger point is that they weren't just solving energy needs for a country but they were setting up the reliance on a corporate/government infrastructure that remains today and comes in handy when you have things like wars.  For those guys it was WWII and all sorts of nifty innovations could help us win it. Another interesting point was that Edison praised Ford's gas powered car over his own electric version feeling it was an inferior invention.  I believe this generation's great, green minds are out there but there is no real IN where it would really change the country.  I will still try to do my part though.  The thought is I believe what you are suggesting, if the right people get together the apple cart will upset.  Didn't do this justice really but I think you get my point.  There so much more common sense along these lines also as far as keeping the US competitive.  I've become fascinated with how easy change looks on paper.  As if it could really happen and a real revolution could begin.  Something's gotta give soon right?  

Brad Pit's much publicized green building contest for New Orleans is a small start.  

The news folk try to ridicule his effort, but when they cover it the satire falls kind of flat.

But why aren't the billions made in the internet revolution, Gate's portion now turned to charity, being applied to the battle?

Assault the bastions of the energy monopolists with mass production of renewable energy producing and consuming products, make them cool, trendy, and status rich.  

We need a google of  Edisons, Fords, and Gates for this energy re-evolution.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

Great article, but correct me if I'm wrong here- Generation X was actually pretty much over by the ages you outline in the piece. The term became marketing fodder somewhere in the mid-eighties and a few of us, now in our late thirties and early forties who opted to question the nuclear proliferation Regan years, and main-stream banal sentimentalities during a bland time watched this identity get flittered away showing up on GAP commercials and car commercials.

You are addressing a great topic though, and other than my somewhat scratched-head interest in the Generation-x thing, I look forward to your next installment.

Great work Dan.  Keep it up! -- DWC