Yeah, I was being a little facetious on the dinosaurs comment.
Fuel prices affect the price of all the other items mentioned in this thread, because they increase the cost of transporting raw materials or harvesting farm goods (grains, veggies, etc.) and transporting finished goods/products to market. They affect the price of doing business for many companies in other ways, such as increasing the cost of aviation fuel for corporate jets and flight schools and helicopter tours and so forth. Unlike the other things discussed in this thread, there's a huge ripple affect related to the cost of refined gasoline and diesel fuel (diesel runs most commercial production lines and farm processing plants).
I'm not saying the point about gasoline and diesel being comparatively CHEAP here in the USA compared to elsewhere is any less valid, it's something the average American (or at least the average American media person) seems oblivious to. However, gasoline/diesel just doesn't compare to bottled water or Nyquil or whatnot....until we can pour those into our tanks and drive to work, school, medical care and the market, anyway.
As for recycling, we do our best (Justin & I) but we aren't off the grid and 0% or even only 50% waste in our household. No one is doing EVERYTHING they could do. If that were so, we'd all be taking public transit or cycling when we don't have to haul a lot, we'd all recycle and only buy products that were recyclable and used a minimum of packaging (itself recyclable), etc. etc. etc. I don't know why people get stuck on the notion that to help the environment it's an all or nothing proposition. I drive a hybrid. I recycle items to charity or eBay or to alternative uses in the home, but I don't have recycling service curbside and don't load my hybrid with used water bottles, cans, etc. to haul them to a recycling plant. There's a lot more I could do, just as there's a lot every single person could do.
It's SO much more than just the price of gas, and as long as we as a nation can't see that, we'll be creating more problems than we're solving, IMHO.