A Really Inconvenient Truth
Yesterday, McKinsey & Company released a study on how we could reduce our greenhouse gas consumption in this country, which was funded by an unlikely collaboration of corporations and nonprofits. Environmental Defense and the Natural Resources Defense Council partnered with Honeywell, National Grid, Detroit Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and Shell to fund this study, which kinda found that the biggest reductions could come from individuals reducing their own carbon footprints, and that there aren't very many incentives to do so.
Yeah, you read that right. The biggest reductions wouldn't come from carbon sequestration or moving to more sustainable energy forms, but from doing things like turning off your lights. With only modest costs and small amounts of innovation, we could reduce carbon emissions in this country by 28 percent in fairly short order. Of course, it would require actual, visible sacrifices on the part of consumers who don't even bother looking at the "Energy Star" stickers when buying cheap computers because they don't care, which means that the computer manufacturers don't bother. They recommend a public education campaign and tax credits and stuff. You know, the same stuff that hasn't worked in the past.
Study Details How U.S. Could Cut 28% of Greenhouse Gases [NY Times]