2008 will probably go on the books as the year the old auto industry was forced into transition. Maybe not. I mean, evil old men suffering from inertia might still figure out a way to run this even further into the ground, but I prefer to think positively. Hell, GM’s bringing back The Volt, for Pete’s sake. In a world where the gas is running out, we just have to cut back on consumption and move to electric. The system can’t hold as is. So, hooray, we painted ourselves into a corner and the planet will benefit.

But that’s not the end. We need to keep moving in a few other areas, and hey, why not during a recession? Industries, invest in a major shift in production, backed by government investment, means more jobs. Perfect.

Lightbulbs – we need to skip the compact florescents. While it’s true you get 8000 hours out of them for ten times the cost of a regular bulb, but, while minuscule, they do contain mercury. They can’t be the technology to replace old school bulbs – all that ends up in the ground at some point. We need to jump right to LEDs. You get 100,000 hours on one at twenty times the cost, but that cost will drop with production increases. Plus, they burn one tenth the electricity.

Batteries – Why are we still making non-rechargables? There are rechargables for sale on the same racks as regular batteries at reasonable prices. And I’m tired of switching in batteries on my Xbox controller? Sure, Microsoft makes money selling me a battery pack and plug – $14 a pop. Ideally, the controllers should, as some models do, come with the pack and charger with ten bucks on top of the cost. Done. And really, that should go for everything – if my iPod comes with a rechargeable battery, shouldn’t my remote?

DVDs – Cheaper to produce than VHS, even right out the gate, DVDs have quickly turned into a non-recyclable mountain of plastic. And the studio solution is to make them dirt cheap and crappy, then move us up to Blu Ray? This is the trickiest one, since nobody has a happy medium for how to sell digital copies to the masses – the public and technology is already there. I’m catching up on Dexter on my Xbox right now. It’s running off a thumbstick USB drive. And that’s the least elegant option available. But once we figure it out, disc production, Blu Ray or otherwise, will be limited to keepers – movies you really, really want a nice copy of, just like how we buy CDs these days. iTunes for tracks and albums we’re curious about, CDs for albums were sure about.

And I’d like to say it again – Styrofoam needs to go and be replaced with pulp paper packing.

I can’t make manufactuerers swap out styrofoam, but I think I can take a personal shot at the others. Well, I’m already on top of the digital versus physical media thing, but I’m going to take a look into the others. First things first, I need to take stock of how many batteries the house needs (6 AA, and 4 AAA, I think), how many lightbulbs the house needs (8), and upgrade. I’m looking at about $300. As an investment that will last over several years, I can make that happen.