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>>OK, I haven't been in many American homes, but film and TV representation of such always feature all lights on (even already on when returning home), 'puters always on, TV springs to life from the remote...
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>You also never see the hero take a leak. Well, very rarely. Honestly many Americans are very conscious of this kind of thing (electricity usage, that is).

ESPECIALLY WHILE taking a leak!

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>Highways are a different subject. The problem in a city like Houston is you can't get from here to there effectively on public transportation. The place is just too damned big.

Houston, you have a problem.

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>>Incidentally, I saw a telly docu some months back showing how air pollution is reflecting some of the sun's rays and ameliorating the effects of global warming, and that the cleaner our air gets the more GW will take effect - a double whammy. Aircraft con-trails are one of the conributary factors. The skies over New York were clear of traffic for a few days after 9/11 and the temps recorded at NY rose by several degrees.
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>>We're all doomed!
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>I heard about that contrail study and it sounds like weird science to me.

No, the contrails spread out and form a thin reflective blanket that filters out SOME of the sunlight. Funny, my old Grandma, in her Victorian-born mentality, back in the 60s used to look up a vapor trails from passing airliners and say "They're changing the weather". We used to laugh but how prophetic she was.