On 6 March 2014 04:39, John Clark <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 11:38 PM, Chris de Morsella > <[email protected]>wrote: > > > The biggest energy source we have available in fact is energy efficiency. >> > > I am certainly in favor of energy efficiency, only a fool would not be, > but it is not the solution to our energy problem because when a commodity > like energy becomes cheaper people simply use more of it. >
I can't say that I do. We mainly use the same types of appliances we did 10 years ago, some of which are now more energy efficient (e.g. light bulbs use a lot less power now). This doesn't make any noticeable difference to our bills, though, because the biggie is hot water, which hasn't changed efficiency at all. However, there is apparently a world-wide (or at least western world wide) epidemic of kids not learning to drive, even though old bangers are still available at affordable prices for teens. People will only use more stuff if it's pushed at them relentlessly by advertisers, and even then they won't if it's perceived as uncool or in the case of cars, bad for the environment. Of course try telling that to "The Great Consumer" and you will get laughed at, because they seem to mostly have a religious belief in free market capitalism, despite there never having been such a thing (just as there has never been Communism). But people aren't so easy to capture in economic models. Just when you think you've infantilised an entire culture and everyone is just "me me me more more more!" they may just turn around and surprise you. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
