too puny to matter?

An often heard criticism of global warming is that we humans are too puny to matter much. An extension of this criticism is that we as individuals are too insignificant to do anything about it. Big problems need big solutions. Well, I urge you to look at the facts and reconsider. Very small savings multiplied by billions of humans do matter. They matter a lot.

The BBC estimated that if every British household turned off just one 100W light bulb for a day, Britain could remove four 500 megawatt coal fired plants. Britain has 22 million households. Or to use another example. The famous Hoover dam produces 2,080 megawatts of electricity. That is just sufficient for one 100W bulb for every British household. Surely, Britons would not be worse off if they were forced to use one less bulb. But how do you get them there? Unfortunately my friends only one things seems to work: higher prices. You don't like it and I don't either, but there is no other way.

The Grand Coulee Dam is the largest hydro-electric power source in the US, and the third largest in the world. It produces 6490 megawatts or more than three times the Hoover output. However, with 105 million households in the US, not even the Grand Coulee could provide enough power for that one extra bulb. One less 100W bulb for every US household would save more power than the Grand Coulee, the Hoover, and the Chief Joseph dams combined. Think about that when you leave your lights on.

And then there is some good news. Americans are driving less. Yes folks, economics works. Even if the geniuses on Wall Street and Capitol Hill don't understand it -or pretend not to. When prices go up, people use less. They are smart. They start treating oil for what it really is, a precious and finite resource. Americans, like everyone else in the world, are smart enough to figure out how to combine car trips and save gas. Over time, even Americans will figure out that buying a smaller car makes sense too. And they won't be any unhappier for it. And that is why the government should fix gas prices at no less than $5 per gallon. Only then will we make some headway against greenhouse gases. All the rest is idle talk and grandstanding.

So Senators Clinton, McCain, and Obama, how about it? How about showing some real leadership and some guts where it really matters? How about setting a minimum gas price? How about driving home the message that our resources are finite and valuable and that wasting them is a stupid thing to do?