lifestyle change

A BBC poll of 22,182 people in 21 countries reported that most are ready for "green sacrifices." It wasn't quite clear what sacrifices people had in mind other than higher energy taxes. Worldwide, 50% are in favor of higher energy taxes, with the Chinese being the most enthusiastic. In the US the percentage is well below 50 which means nothing much is going to happen anytime soon. 

But apparently, when people are told the higher tax will go towards new technologies, more are willing to participate. Four out of five polled were prepared to "change their lifestyle," even in the US and China, the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. Given how hard it is for people to change their lifestyle, I kind of wonder what kind of follow thru we can expect. It seems more likely people were trying to please the pollster. Maybe they do feel guilty. But many people feel guilty being overweight too. But that does not mean they will do anything about it.

Here are some examples of rather painless adjustments one could implement: turn off your lights when you don't need them. I have already remarked that many houses are lit up like christmas trees at night, but you'd be surprised how many leave their porch lights on during the day as well. Another major winner is not to heat or cool the entire house, but only those rooms that are in use. Given how oversized houses are that should be pretty easy to do. If only one can make sure there are no obvious air leaks. According to other recent surveys, people will eagerly install new insulation but ignore obvious air leaks. It is just more fun to buy new things than to fix obvious flaws.

And thirdly, you could stop driving your car and cut back on flying. This one I am sure is a winner. Given that the average mileage of the top 5 bestselling cars in the use is just under 18 mpg, we could make some real differences here. But surely you think buying a new Lexus hybrid would be a better idea. It certainly sounds good, but even according to the Wall Street Journal, the new Lexus is not a green car. It costs nearly $100K and saves a mere 2 mpg under the best conditions. But hey, you can look cool and feel good too. How is that for a change in lifestyle?

None of the effective changes requires you to spend any money and maybe that is a problem. It is not sexy. Instead you will save money, which hopefully you won't spend flying to some exotic destination as that would completely nullify all the carbon savings and then some. You could invest the money in planting some trees for example. Or buy a new bicycle.

Given how easy these "changes" are and given the fact that you will save quite a bit of money following them, I would be interested to see how many would implement these. My guess is very few. So much for enthusiastic support of "lifestyle changes." Like all those New Year's resolutions I guess.