Americans still not convinced about global warming 01 December 04

The statistics that Mark posted are of no surprise to me. I live in America and I live with this attitude of ignorance, denial, and indifference everyday and I can rarely have a meaningful conversation with many of my own relatives!

This does not discourage me as much as it emboldens me to become more responsible to do my part. I am engaged in constantly improving my own energy efficiency and conservation efforts. I am going one step further in my attempts over time to measure the before an after effects when an idea is implemented successfully. The more I know and the more I am aware then the more I can help others in the process.

The more I am aware, the more responsible I become and the more I must help others to do their part. It is very difficult to move this immense inertia but, collectively, we can all engage others more often and help them with practical ideas.

My post on the SUV is an example of how to do this. Most people do not need an SUV and if they feel it is useful then they should use the SUV more responsibly. It is always important to offer solutions for people who may not go the extra mile but may go at least the first mile. Eliminating wasteful habits in others at any level can have a great impact I think.

Part of my responsibility is to contribute my thoughts to Mark’s site so they do not remain inside myself. I think that by doing this we can help increase our own awareness and gain from the dialogue we have with others. The ideas I have received from Lynn and others have been of great benefit. I mention Lynn because if everyone already had her awareness and attitude, then we may not be having such a problem right now.

For me, with an engineering background, I really feel an obligation because I have the ability to understand the technical details and to do my own calculations with regard to climate science and with regard to preventative solutions. Many times we think we have the answer to a problem and then I discover that I may not be asking the right questions. Part of my problem-solving process is to strive to ask the right questions first.

The one question we all should ask is what can I do that can prevent climate change? Part of this answer may be in your own energy use and you may have bought compact fluorescent lights and changed every light bulb in the house. This is good but if your neighbors do not do it, then your small effort may remain insignificant.

Now, what if you bought compact fluorescent lights to give as Christmas gifts? Then, those who receive these gifts will then have an instant awareness about your values toward climate-change prevention.

By helping others to reduce their emissions through education or direct involvement, you can then increase the collective response required to prevent climate change. In helping others, you will actually multiply the effects of your very best solitary effort.

One last thing we can all do is to contribute to Mark’s site. I would really like to see more people from the UK post their thoughts. I think that many people in the UK possess a great intellect and awareness of climate issues and I welcome the friendship and insight I may receive from the exchange of ideas. I have more to say about this in a future post.

what global warming is – at least that is what I found about 10 years ago when I did a study. Most confused it with the ozone hole, and thought all they had to do was give up hair spray (which by then didn’t even have CFCs anymore). Only 15% (based on General Social Survey) knew burning fossil fuels could caused it. I think the % must be a lot higher now – maybe 50%. But without the media covering it much & using the pro-con format when they do, Americans don’t have the opportunity to learn about it. Then there is the Iraq war, which is occupying everyone’s mind. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the real impetus for the Iraq war was to take people’s mind off of global warming. In fact just before the 1st Gulf war in 1991, Americans were beginning to get into environmental issues. The film IS IT HOT ENOUGH FOR YOU was to be shown – the night we started the war. The film was, of course, bumped off the air for good.

Lynn again is correct! Americans do not know! This creates a burden on us who do know, to inform the ones who do not know!

One way I plan to help the awareness of my relatives and friends is to buy books about climate change like High Tide as Christmas Gifts. I am sure Mark would approve of this plan!

I plan to buy compact fluorescent light bulbs as gifts. Other people may suggest to me other good ideas.

I am sure Lynn can offer some more ideas for me and especially ideas for young children and teenagers.

I am limited in funds but I feel an obligation to celebrate Christmas with special gifts that serve an important purpose. This I think is what Christ would want me to do!

I may even decide to share my reasons for why I am doing this in Christmas Cards! The reasons are all about caring for our future.

I myself was motivated at a young age when I received a tiny solar cell for Christmas. No one knew what to do with it and that included me. But my curiosity led me to become more interested in solar energy and science in general.

Maybe that is why I post so much on Mark’s site.

That’s the problem in a nutshell, Lynn. The irony in all this is they don’t want to know because they do not want to make the sacrifices or do the suffering required to mitigate it—but since GW, CC, and peak oil are all upon us, they’re gonna end up making sacrifices and doing a lot of suffering ANYWAY. And if they’d been more willing, sooner, the price might have been a bargain compared to what they’ll be paying now….sigh….ho, ho, ho. NOT.

I have to agree with everything you said! You hit the nail on the head!

To avoid the pain as you say, it is easier to deny so not to become responsible.

For me, this does not excuse me from trying to reach people.

But your point is well taken Vicki! Only when things affect people more, will they begin to take notice. The vast majority will remain indifferent until they feel some pain.

Maybe within a year or two, I may be ready to offer special evaluation services to help people reduce their energy use for a price. I am slowly working on this every day.

So, one way or another, I will be there when the prices soar, and maybe profit from helping other people who had their heads in the sand.

Those that were the worst offenders and ignored me the most may receive a higher fee!

that it’s going to cost us a lot more later. The fact that the vast majority of proactive solutions (energy efficiency and conservation) save money, makes it all the more crazy that people don’t take those actions. You can’t even get people to make rational economic selfish choices (that would also help the earth)! As a social scientist, I would say this is due to social, cultural, and psychological perversities, but it almost seems demonic at times.

I think I’ll also give copies of Mark’s book to friends & relatives, and donate a copy to our library.

I think all your ideas are good. There is also the concept of having a “Green Christmas,” with either an artificial tree or a live on to plant. My husband & I have never had a real Christmas tree, and I understand there is a place near my town that is taking donations of live Xmas trees after Xmas & planting them (mainly to reduce soil erosion).

Then there is using reused wrapping paper, or buying some “tree planting” from www.futureforests.com

Have a Green Christmas, everyone!

is what it’s called. Indeed, they know full well that global climate change is real. They ignore it in order to carry on carring on as normal. Florida got a taste of reality this year, so ignorance will not prevent the problem from intruding on their lives, willful or not. I dispair of my fellow countrymen. Like the President and the three monkeys, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil when it pertains to climate change. Only events can shake them from their self imposed ignorance. I not some recent newspaper articles here in the USA in which climate change was said to not be happening, but if it by chance is happening, it will benefit us all. Now there is American logic for you. How do thinking people deal with this sort of lunacy? As I said, only things like Florida 2004 can begin to shake people up. The insurance industry is awake to it, becuase they are being stuck paying for it.

Mark,

I appreciate your curiosity into how we do it here in the USA.

My answer is we do basically nothing with regards to public awareness. I am not aware of any flyers or airport protests. It is not even acknowledged or discussed here. Our leaders said Kyoto was political and not scientific. So, it may still be more ignorance than willful ignorance in the USA than the UK.

But your good question is not the best one to ask. The better question would be: What can the USA learn from the UK?

The case I will make (and support with numbers) is that people in the UK can do better investing their time in helping us in the USA reduce emissions than investing their time in further reductions in the UK.

First, I think it is very reasonable that our per capita emission rates should be close to countries like Japan, France, Germany, and the UK. So here are the per capita GHG emissions of some industrialized countries as the equivalent number of Americans (i.e. a citizen of the UK has the emission rate of 0.54 times one American):

1 Australian citizen = 1.31 the emissions of 1 American

1 Canadan citizen = 1.04 the emissions of 1 American

1 American citizen = 1.00 the emissions of 1 American

1 German citizen = 0.56 the emissions of 1 American

1 UK citizen = 0.54 the emissions of 1 American

1 European Union citizen = 0.49 the emissions of 1 American

1 Japanese citizen = 0.48 the emissions of 1 American

1 French citizen = 0.39 the emissions of 1 American

So based on the per capita emission rates of these countries, Australia, Canada, and the USA have much room for improvement. The USA has a much larger population so our total effect is enormous.

If the USA were to cut emissions to that of the UK (based on the 1998 numbers from above), we would reduce our emissions by 45 percent! A 45 percent reduction is more than double what Kyoto would have required of the USA!

If the USA were equivalent to the UK right now in per capita emissions, then it would have the same effect as if the entire European Union reduced all their emissions by 68 percent! It would also have the same effect as if the UK reduced their emissions to zero multiplied by four!

So, based on my preceding analysis I did based on numbers you can get from the Internet, it would be helpful if we fully understood why our per capita emissions are so much higher than the UK right now. That is a good question to answer and the answer may provide insight that would pay great dividends.

A few more facts: The USA uses on a per capita basis 1.4 times the UK in natural gas, 2.1 times the UK in electricity, and 2.4 times the UK in Oil.

So, my friend Mark, if you or anyone in the UK would be curious about researching this further with me, then the benefits to help the struggling minority of proactive people over in the USA may do some real overall good for the planet since national boundaries are not relevant in preventing climate change!

I am an engineer so I am pretty good with numbers. If you have access to any of my previous posts on this site, then you may learn more of the ideas I have already shared. I am into learning preventative measures at any level.

I admire many people I have met from the UK on Mark’s site. Despite your feeling of the indifference from your own people, your people are still way ahead of us in preventing climate change and your country has acknowledged the problem and is taking an active leadership role.

So, if you give it some thought, Mark, please think about my previous analysis and think in global terms. If you can help us, then one day we can help China because they are well on the way to be another USA but even worse. China has much less prosperity than either the UK or the USA, but their oil use is second only to us because of their massive population.

So, let me know what you think. I have made this case before on Mark’s site but you sparked my interest in making it again. It would at least be a fun cultural exchange if anything else to note the differences in how both the UK and the USA consume energy!

Best Regards, Dan

Apologies for the long delay in replying.

Thanks for your response. I agree that it would be of value to establish why the US, Australia and Canada do consume a lot more energy and contribute significantly more emissions than the UK and some other European countries.

I think a good place to start would be to make comparisons between the different countries.

I relation to transport one factor may be that in the countries with higher emissions fuels is a lot cheaper. If I have got my exchange rates right I think the prices compare roughly as follows.

Fuel prices per litre (Pence)

USA 28.11p UK 67.1p GERMANY 78.58p CANADA 36.61p AUSTRALIA 50.5p

The US per capita income (purchasing power) is $37,500 compared to $27,650 in the UK so it figures that US citizens are more likely to be able to afford to drive inefficient vehicles than people in the UK. Other World Bank figures Canada ($27.740), Australia ($28.290) Germany ($27,460).

Political attitudes are also different. The refusal of the Bush administration to take Climate change seriously is a concern that we are addressing here. There are weekly vigils outside the US embassy, an annual march marking the decision to dump Kyoto and when George Bush was landing in London people where on the streets demanding that he ratifies the Kyoto agreement.

The US government stance does not seem to reflect US opinion with 71% of the population agreeing that you should sign up to Kyoto according to some surveys, so public attitudes may not be the primary obstacle to change.

In contrast Tony Blair claims to be concerned about climate change although his action don’t always match his rhetoric (his commitment to airport expansion being a good example). The UK government will hold presidency of the G8 and the EU next year and plan to place Climate Change high on the agenda.

Maybe it would be good to look at the difference in public opinions and other areas in the different countries.

Thanks Mark,

I just now discovered this. Sometimes, a response back gets hidden on Mark’s site.

I appreciate your response. However, I have a more basic objective other than politics and economics. I am an engineer and I want to explore lifestyle differences and basic infrastructure differences.

I think most of us realize that both our cheap energy is and government policies are the cause and part of the solution is to correct these.

Our infrastructure and lifestyles have evolved to require a higher use of energy per capita. My investigation would highlight exactly what these differences are which create the extra energy drain despite the basic root causes which we know of.

I would like to focus on the differences in how we heat and cool our homes, how our societies are developed which create more use of cars on our part, etc. Our choices and decisions based on cheap energy compared to the opposite.

The goal of looking at it from this perspective is to show what we can do by emulating countries like the UK to reduce our per capita energy use without sacrificing our lifestyle and even improve it with less traffic congestion and the like.

From this standpoint, a better plan can be developed and articulated with supporting evidence on how other countries do it without any real harm to their societies.

With this plan developed, then there is something to offer from a political point of view and this would address the political cause of the problem. Showing that our economy would benefit would also address the economic concerns.

So, with your thoughtful reply, let us think further on these ideas of how we in America can learn from our friends in other countries.

I think you may want to reread my earlier posts on this. I claim that further reductions in the UK and other countries would not help as much as if the USA could get its act together. I could repost those numbers again if needed. I made a good case there.

After this formidable task is accomplished with the USA, then we can better enable China and India to do better. I have said before that their emissions are also related to our consumption in that many of our goods are manufactured in China and many service jobs are going to India.

So, we are fueling the prosperity gains of populous nations developing their economies which create more emissions.

The USA is the key problem. Solving the problem here solves the problem for the rest of the world to a point whereby you can continue more fully your own efforts. Without the USA on board, all may be lost.

I promote the use of compact fluorescent lights and I encourage others to promote their use in others and even give them away as gifts. I say that it does not matter where the energy efficient bulbs are screwed in! They all reduce energy and emissions just as well in our own home as in someone else’s home.

Thanks for your reply back. I make a case for pro-activity. I want us to be ever more proactive rather than just becoming experts at climate science and economic theory.

Our leaders need to change. Our cost of energy must be gradually increased through taxes to promote our people to change. We need a plan to do that. That plan does not exist in the Democratic Party and the Republicans have a plan. It is a bad one. And even the Republican plan is not being passed. We need to offer an alternative. Our friends around the world may be able to help us with this and there maybe other areas whereby we can engage that enables a total planetary focus wherever the problem lies.

These are my thoughts. I hope they have merit. To bad engineers are not more active. All we want to do is solve problems and we delight in that. I want to see this problem solved regarding the prevention of catastrophic climate change!

That is my vision and according to the Bible, somewhere it is written, that “without vision the people perish!” I am still a secular guy at heart but no matter what one’s personal beliefs are, all ideas have merit and emotions rule in determining how passionate we become in the pursuit of our collective vision.

With all that said, I offer a statement written directly to me from a special Minister in Atlanta, Georgia and I share it with you and to everyone as a prayer for our continued success.

May our efforts bring forth fruit that heals the planet by healing the minds and hearts of people. May you be blessed in the work that you are doing. Stay in touch

Best Regards Always, Dan