Telling people to reduce energy consumption is pointless
Via Rod, I see there’s a lady who is quite upset that the New York Times poked fun at her propensity for thrift when it comes to energy consumption. She frames her argument in the usual apocalyptic terms environmentalists use–The icecaps are melting! The end is near!–and suggests that Americans are simply greedy pigs who should reduce their energy output by lowering their standard of living.
Look, people: you’re never going to convince Americans (or anyone else, for that matter) that they have to reduce their own standard of living. It just isn’t going to happen. No society in history has made hard sacrifices for far-off, imperceptible gains that we may or may not see in the future. She (laughably) compares the challenge we face to fighting Nazism. Scrambling to combat the immediate spread of fascism in Europe isn’t even remotely similar to trimming one degree centigrade off the average worldwide temperature 100 years from now.
Instead, what we need to work on is energy efficiency. More nuclear power: France has relied on nuclear power for a number of years now, and produces far lower emissions than Germany and Great Britain. Better gas mileage in cars: the American economy is built on commuters, and that’s not going to change any time soon. (You think you’ve seen a crash in home prices? Think of what would happen if you made suburban living unaffordable with absurdly high gas prices.) We want our McMansions and big back yards. But we’re also willing to pick up a car with good gas mileage, especially considering the rising cost of fuel. Improve public transit: I used to think DC had a pretty great public transportation system until I started working in a part of the city that’s annoyingly difficult to get to by WMATA transportation. If the buses and trains ran on time you might get more people to take them as well. As it is, mass transit (in cities like DC) is unreliable. Improve the infrastructure.
I’m all for heading toward energy independence. But we’re not going to get there by depriving our children of organized sports.