Brrr! Winter seems to be coming and going this year in a way that is scaring some of us greenies to the bone. But if it's cold, it's cold - what can we do? Dressing appropriately is a big first step - and that advice holds true even when we are indoors.

Treehugger reminded us last year about Jimmy Carter's famous February 2, 1977 speech: Report to the American People on Energy, and we've been waiting for a good moment to bring it up. On that day almost 30 years ago, Jimmy Carter had been in office for 2 weeks, and was broadcast on television in a cardigan.

His advice then remains to be good advice today. Here is an excerpt from his speech:

We must face the fact that the energy shortage is permanent. There is no way we can solve it quickly. But if we all cooperate and make modest sacrifices, if we learn to live thriftily and remember the importance of helping our neighbors, then we can find ways to adjust and to make our society more efficient and our own lives more enjoyable and productive. Utility companies must promote conservation and not consumption. Oil and natural gas companies must be honest with all of us about their reserves and profits. We will find out the difference between real shortages and artificial ones. We will ask private companies to sacrifice, just as private citizens must do.

All of us must learn to waste less energy. Simply by keeping our thermostats, for instance, at 65 degrees in the daytime and 55 degrees at night we could save half the current shortage of natural gas.

There is no way that I, or anyone else in the Government, can solve our energy problems if you are not willing to help. I know that we can meet this energy challenge if the burden is borne fairly among all our people–and if we realize that in order to solve our energy problems we need not sacrifice the quality of our lives.

We encourage everyone to wear sweaters and slipper socks when indoors this winter, in hopes that we all can lower our thermostat a little, even if it is just one degree.

Rebecca says: Here in Miami we've had a very warm winter, just two weeks ago I was kayaking in my bathing suit. However last night we experienced one of our chilliest nights all season. I'm proud to say that by sleeping with 3 shirts, pants, and 2 pairs of socks I was able to avoid putting on the heat. Living without heat is unreasonable in most of the country, but each degree less does make a difference.

Transcript, Jimmy Carter Speech 2/2/1977