Global energy waste not an individual issue

December 12, 2013 | By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

If everyone around the globe consumed as much energy, food and other resources as in the United States, Earth could sustain only about a quarter of its current population, according to Worldwatch Institute. However, there are ways to turn wasteful consumption of energy around.

Credit: Stephen Slade Tien/Wikimedia Commons

Among the ways to transform cultures to make consumption patterns more sustainable are policy changes, such as shifting taxes on unsustainable practices like carbon emissions, according to WRI, as well as shifts in infrastructure, such as transportation.

Ultimately, long-term changes will not be brought about by individual actions alone and too much focus on changing individual behavior can inadvertently redirect efforts from the cultural, business, and political changes that are necessary. Although corporations have supported some conservation efforts by individuals, the amount of damage done by people and households is only a small fraction of the total waste produced by industries every year, according to WRI.

Energy waste is a large-scale problem. Issues arise when individuals, rather than large-scale waste producers, take the blame.

"Describing today's environmental problems and solutions as individual issues has a disempowering effect," said Annie Leonard, contributing author of Worldwatch's State of the World 2013 report. "… Society-wide, we need to implement new technologies, cultural norms, infrastructure, policies, and laws."

For more:
- see the report here and here

http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/global-energy-waste-not-individual-issue/2013-12-12