In which I am at odds with Climate Progress.

I am, normally, a big fan of the blog Climate Progress edited by Joseph Romm (Joe), who also does most of the posting. Today's entry, though, is one I disagree with. When asked what sacrifices he takes to reduce his carbon footprint, Joe responds:

I tend to think the question is largely irrelevant. I worry about AGW a great deal, but I don’t advocate individual sacrifice, since it won’t solve the problem — nor is it necessary. For instance, you don’t need to cut down on your electricity consumption if you purchase renewable power (although efficiency will be good for your pocketbook).

That's all well and good, and he goes on to give a list of things he does do to reduce his carbon footprint. Further down, however, he says:

Again, in the grand scheme of things, my actions don’t matter, but not a single one of them required sacrifice, and other than telecommuting (and perhaps the PV system), they are all things the vast majority of people could easily do.

It's the "my actions don't matter" that bothers me. Although I agree that it is sometimes possible to reduce your carbon footprint without an actual sacrifice on your own part, individual actions do matter, because many people making individual actions and decisions constitutes a mass movement. Currently, the politicians in America believe that Americans want to consume large amounts of energy and have stuff shipped from across the country and do on and so forth. It's hard to convince a politician that his or her constituents want the power companies and other industry to reduce emmissions when our lifestyles don't bear that out. We have to face the fact that America is run by Capitalists. If they see us buying and using power without discretion, then they will believe that there is no demand to go green. If they see us boycotting or reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, then they will begin to understand we are serious about this.