But, they are purchasing green
(Mother Jones) If you care about saving the climate, there’s good news and bad news this week, courtesy of a voluminous new report on Americans’ personal and consumer behavior in relation to global warming that’s just out from the Yale and George Mason research teams on climate change communication.
First the good news: It looks like energy efficiency is really winning out with the American consumer. Not only do half of Americans now say they’ve purchased a kitchen appliance that’s energy efficient. Looking forward, impressive majorities say that they want their next appliance or car purchase to be green. Three-quarters say as much for kitchen appliances, 71 percent for their next water heater, and 61 percent say they want their next car to do 30 miles per gallon or better.
Hey, I do that myself, mostly to save money. When I replaced my fridge in 2011, energy efficiency was an important factor. When I replaced my central A/C unit in April, energy efficiency was important. Why? I like saving money in the long run. I often purchase products, like car cleaner, dish detergent, and clothes detergent, that are truly environmentally friendly (note: quite a few that say they’re green are full of cow patties). I don’t do this to “save the climate”, which is a truly stupid phrase and notion, since climate always changes. I do this to save money and protect the real environment, and I suspect that most purchase that way for the same reasons.
Anyway
So what’s the bad news? Well, it comes in the area of what you might call “efficacy”: Americans are buying lots of green stuff, but at the same time, they’re markedly less convinced that their personal or individual actions actually make a difference for the climate. (snip)
According to Anthony Leiserowitz of Yale, it’s very unlikely that most Americans have suddenly figured out that individual energy-saving actions—while highly commendable—aren’t enough on their own to fix climate change (because instead we need major policy changes). Rather, he suggests, people’s sense of climate efficacy has declined largely because climate change itself fell out of the media, and public consciousness, in the wake of the economic collapse and throughout much of President Obama’s first term. “I think a lot of it is because we aren’t talking about this issue at all any more, so people are not being reinforced with the message: ‘So, here are the things you can do.'”
I’d suggest that it actually comes down to people seeing all the Goreacle Warming leaders, Gore, Hansen, Mann, Obama, etc, failing to practice what they preach. That rarely do they see an article from any of the Warmists, at places like Grist, Treehugger, Climate Progress, and so on, which tell people that they themselves need to reduce their own carbon footprint. Why should people believe that their own action will make a difference when the leading Warmists always want Someone Else to bear the burden for their beliefs?
