Big hair and fluorescent clothing are how we expressed "We are tired of conserving and just want to have fun". Is an 80s-style backlash on the way?

Am I the only one who is worried that our window for major energy reforms is passing by?  The clock is ticking for major environmental initiatives and all anyone is doing is Talking.   We blog, we tweet, we educate.

Don’t get me wrong, talking is good.  If one positive thing has come from our current economic crisis, it is that conservation has become “hip”.  Making it cool to be thrifty and gauche to be ostentatious has been, well, convenient, to an American public that is quick to respond to the latest fads.  And the conversation about the environment has extended beyond the marginal tree hugger crowd to the general public.  I mean, gosh, Michael Pollan was even on Oprah this month!  Oprah made millions of people who had never read a book embrace an “Oprah’s book club” for years, so I am willing to bet that thousands of would-be Walmart produce shoppers are probably thinking of starting their own garden this summer after that show aired.  Average Americans are taking notice of issues spanning from gas emissions to solar energy because “conservation” and “recession” go hand in hand.

But where does the 2007 energy platform stand after the U.S. comes out on the other side of this debacle?  And make no mistake, we will… but history is cyclical.  The 1970s brought recycling and homemade clothes to the forefront only to be followed quickly by the 1980s, a decade of total excess.  What will the next decade look like?   It seems easy to predict that a public that is currently willing to be encouraged to “reduce and reuse” will be grow tired of being lectured.   “What  a buzzkill”, they will say… “I am full of hope, I have money again…. I think I will go buy some bright, fluorescent, NEW clothes”.