Break out the "We're #39" foam fingers!

Sustainability, the ability to provide for the current population without compromising resources for future generations, is an increasingly hot topic. What with Al Gore's recent documentary and George Clooney's electric car, people are starting to take the whole "future of our planet" thing seriously. That's why its too bad that when SustainLane recently came out with their annual ranking of the most sustainable cities in America, Houston came in at a fairly dismal 39 out of 50, placing it 25 spots behind our hippie brethren, but ahead of both Tulsa and Okalahoma City. No matter how bad it gets, we're still better than Oklahoma!

The big problem is sustainability and Houston are a tough mix. Houston's patented Everything-is-Bigger-in-Texas sprawl makes northern style population centers and public transit fairly untenable, and our sauna-like environment makes programs like the garden roofing subsidies in Chicago and Portland (both in the top five) a bad idea. But according to WorldChanging, the biggest problem might be ignorance, or just a lack of conversation. Its a big problem, but not so big that some innovative community action couldn't handle it. Houstonist's idea? Big freaking biodome.