...To which many of you had quite a bit to say.

Reader Robert believes the steel industry needs to clean up its act more than any other:

When the fines for pollution is less than 2% of the daily proffit seen by the industry, there is no incentitive to stop distroying the environment. The electric utility industry is spending $Billions to meet the EPA requirements over the next 10 years, but the steel companies are investing next to nothing.

Of course, our government was put to task. Says David: "The greed of our leaders in government and big [business] has got to shoulder the lion's share." (Our reader Dale is more specific: "Two words: President Bush!") Robert says that our government has been "ignoring greenhouse gases and cuddling up to Middle Eastern Oil Barrens for much too long and ignoring the benefits of alternative renewable fuels. Money talks and they have been listening."

As we noted in part 1 of our Alternative-Fuel Vehicles on the Road: A 'Real-World' Guide article, President Bush last month said that the best way for the nation to end its addiction to foreign oil is to make a transition more quickly to vehicles that run on alternatives to gasoline. Despite this, "the federal government's long-wavering commitment to alternative energy was something even the president was forced to acknowledge at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, where 32 staffers were laid off two weeks earlier because of budget cuts. Indeed, many still see mixed signals between Bush's proposal and the government's funding for alternative energy research.

Ultimately, though, your comments' overriding blame lay in the man or woman in the mirror.

According to KD:

We can go on and on about oil companies and gas prices and polluted air and all the [respiratory] problems that seem to be affiliated with pollution — however, as usual, the solution lies with each and everyone of us. We drive big, fast cars; we speed; the auto manufacturers continue to produce and market BIGGER AND FASTER automobiles instead of producing comfortable, cool looking, smaller and gas-efficient autos.

The answer, she says, "is simple — as it usually is." Drive smaller and more fuel-efficient cars. Likewise Lance and WEF Manufacturing, each of whom note size, type and gas guzzler vehicles as being problem-causing factors that can be avoided. Contact the auto manufacturers with your thoughts, KD continues; tell them to get to the old drawing board and manufacture something that works for this country and to do it now rather than five years from now.

Like most things, this needs to start at home, says reader Mike. "A quick trip to the local landfill in most communities will expose the average consumer as being extremely wasteful and totally negligent when it comes to disposing of hazardous, and in many cases toxic, materials. When purchasing items, we give little thought regarding their eventual disposal. Paints, solvents, lubricants, cleaners, etc., go into the trash and into the landfill, when we could have them recycled and reused or, at least, disposed of properly. "But for most of us," Mike notes, "that's too much trouble."

And Rich gets philosophical, saying that we would not have put our world in such peril, "struggling for her very existence if we as human beings would think a little less about our own fortune and take it upon ourselves to do what's right for our own future first, then do what's right as best we can to make our profits." He points out — aptly so — that at even the largest businesses and industries, if you push up far enough, decisions come down to one person who has the final say — yea or nay — "to do what's right, first, before profit."

Yet ultimately, as WEF Manufacturing points out, "the buck has to stop with every one of us." Solutions to the energy problem are not going to come overnight, as we all know. "The responsibility for the mess we (the world, not just the United States) find ourselves in lies [ultimately] with all of us, David reminds us.

In the end, perhaps we can all take a cue from KD, who, while not naïve, remains optimistic: "…all of us can make a major difference, and what we can do as a country is totally awesome." Well said, KD.

If you'd like to leave your own comments to this the Burning Question, please feel free to do so via this page.

And thanks to all of our readers who left comments and who frequently do so. Please continue to comment to our articles at the IMT blog -- whether you reached them via the e-newsletter or you are simply returning for our daily-updated editorial. Leave your insight or your related rants, dear readers, and join in the online conversation. This is your industry. We're researching, writing and updating daily for you.