a bit about why you matter

14Jan10

Policy Brief 24, “Climate Change and the Energy Challenge,” released last August by the United Nations Department of Economics and Social Affairs, lays out some facts to which we should all be privy, but before I explain, let me explain…

Back in 2007, a Newsweek article, “The Green Giant,” described the unique brand of “hedonistic environmentalism” perpetuated by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.  In the piece, Schwarzenegger, who drives an 800 horsepower ’65 Chevy Impala, that he’s converted to run on biodiesel, and a owns both hydgrogen and biodiesel-powered Hummers, is given royal treatment as a world leader (“Czar”) on climate change policy.

Citing his close relationship with the then U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and his aggressive, G.O.P.-confounding (has occasionally alienated himself from his own party) greenhouse gas emission reduction initiatives as evidence, the article makes the case for the “Green Giant” that was, Ahhhnold.

As a person who continually, habitually, almost religiously seeks the simplest and easiest (and of course most effective) solution, I was heartened by the idea that we could have our internal combustion cake and eat CO2 too.  After reading this article I was, to borrow a Californian expression, stoked… “Yes,” I thought, “this is the future.  We, the American collective, are going to move beyond our reliance on foreign, polluting fossil fuel with technology, wit, and American-ness.  Yes, our habits are fine.  Our patterns are reasonable.  Our actions our just.  Our behaviors will have continuity and staying power amidst the confusion of climate change punditry and bickering.  Our culture is stable.”

But now I feel differently.  Unfortunately, we do need to change.  Our habits and behaviors are not sustainable. We are wasteful consumers and self-consumed wasters.

The U.N. Policy Brief 24, explains that we Americans use an average of 246 kWh per person per day. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries use 120 kWh per person per day, the Chinese use 45 kWh, Indians use 15 kWh, and 1/3, yes, ONE THIRD – i.e. ONE OUT OF EVERY THREE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD – don’t have access to modern energy.  This is a problem.  This is a major problem, and though it represents substantial problems in economics, politics and technology, goes beyond these dimensions. It is a problem of ethics.  It is a question of being a good neighbor.  It is an issue of education and clarification of values.  It is a matter of deciding what story we want to tell and what kind of world we want to live in.

We could start by remembering that the limits of our little green and blue orb are set.  There will be no more inputs.  The natural resources we have are the natural resources we get.  Do we want to keep searching for more oil?  Do we want to keep digging and searching and moving earth and burning carbon-based fuels? Do we want a world with energy conflicts and wars?  Do we want nuclear waste buried in the side of a mountain?  Do we want coal-slurry runoff in our rivers? Do we want a world wherein we Americans have so much more energy, electricity, modernity and relative wealth than others that we’re resented?  …Hated?  …Hunted?

Of course the answers to all of these questions are a resounding “NO,” but how do we change course?  How do we use less and share more?  How do we use our entrepreneurial talents, our ability to innovate, our optimism, our relentless idealism, our “American-ness” to help ourselves and our neighbors?

The answer starts with a refusal to be pandered to, appeased, patronized or mesmerized into continual complacency by non-starter stories and ideas.  It starts with acknowledging that we must share and that adopting proactive measures and becoming active stewards of the world we pass on to our progeny is not an option, but a duty.  The answer starts with awareness and ends with accountability, responsibility, and honesty.

The U.N.’s cutoff between energy poverty and sufficiency is 100 kWh per person per day. With current systems and agendas, there isn’t enough to go around.  But, as the largest per capita consumers of energy in the world, we could do a lot, with small individual measures, to change both the politcal and natural climate of the earth.

The Costanzo et al article, “Energy Conservation Behavior: The Difficult Path from Information to Action,” in the May 1986 issue of American Psychology,   states that energy conservation behavior change initiatives were (still are) typically based on one or both of two theories: The “attitude-change model” and the “rational-economic model.” However, the most effective means of behavior change diffusion, even back then, was found to be through social networks.  Good ‘ole word of mouth and role models:

“A social diffusion model views the decision to adopt
an energy-conserving device as a specific case of the de-
cision to adopt an innovation. This process of innovation
diffusion tends to occur through existing social networks.
That is, most people will adopt a new innovation only
after its effectiveness has been demonstrated through the
experience of friends and acquaintances. Social diffusion
involves two separable influence process: (a) information
communicated via interpersonal contact and (b) the
modeling of effective behavior.”

Admittedly, the Newsweek piece about Arnold was mostly a report and probably wasn’t a celebration of hypocrisy, but I’ve come to see it in a new, and less favorable, light.  We need leaders who aren’t resistant to driving hybrids, who don’t need two Hummers, who don’t believe in a marriage of hedonism and environmentalism.  …FYI – it doesn’t exist.

The old saying, “if we all to a little, we can do a lot,” has waxed and waned in popularity over the years, and there have been times when I’ve found it downright idiotic.  But, finding it idiotic is immature.  In practice, it is actually true.  We all have the ability to be leaders among our peers and we should be.  We should, for reasons of economics, politics, leadership, civility, ethics and humanity find and take advantage of opportunities to be more efficient, less wasteful and less materialistic.  You need you to take action badly, and 1/3 of the rest of the people on earth need you to take action desperately.

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