Harmonious Living - Could Gore's Nobel Prize Win Switch on Energy-Saving Bulbs in US Minds?

Could Gore's Nobel Prize Win Switch on Energy-Saving Bulbs in US Minds?

Karin Zeitvogel
Friday, 12 October 2007
US former vice president Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize has highlighted the urgency of tackling climate change, but experts and ordinary Americans were divided over whether it would spur the United States to mend its energy-unfriendly ways. A study conducted by the Pew Research Center in Washington showed 77 percent of Americans believe there is solid evidence the climate is changing, but less than half thought it was due to human activity. Few Americans live in a home without an electricity-gluttonous clothes dryer, incessantly running air conditioning, dishwashers and washing machines, and a family car. "I often ask why people here don't use clothes lines, but where I live, clothes lines are banned because they are said to be unsightly," Kevin Trenberth, the head of the climate analysis section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), told AFP. "I am trying to convince the authorities in Colorado that clothes lines are environmentally beautiful," said Trenberth. Trenberth was a lead author of the 1995, 2001 and 2007 Scientific Assessment of Climate Change reports by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the Nobel with Gore. The United States is the world's biggest producer of carbon dioxide emissions, 30 percent of which come from automobiles, said Trenberth, a New Zealand native. "We could cut emissions in half in the US. The main way to make change happen relates to the pocketbook," he said. "One of the best things that has happened in the United States is that the price of gas has gone up," he said. "But it didn't go up high enough to change habits." Trenberth urged leaders and industry to set an example. "In Japan, the prime minister said they had to wear short-sleeve shirts and set air conditioning thermostats at 82 degrees. Many followed his lead and that was a success. "The US Congress is working on legislation related to climate change, but we need a leader who will set an example," he said. "With cars, we can make a difference in a decade -- most of the petrol-run cars on the roa of their lives. But we need incentives to be put in place for that to work." Annie Strickler, a spokeswoman for ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability, was upbeat and said Gore's award had given new momentum to a "wave of leadership on climate change that is spreading across the country." "This started at a local level and is moving up through the ranks and permeating to Washington," Strickler said. "On a day like today when climate change won the Nobel Peace Prize, you feel a certain momentum, and it's powerful," she said. Powerful enough to switch on the hopefully energy-efficient lightbulbs in Americans' heads about what they can do to put the brakes on global warming? "A number of people have not yet grasped the connection that, when you turn on a light, on the other end there's a coal-fired power plant," said Janet Larsen, director of research at the Earth Policy Institute in Washington. Trenberth suggested peer pressure as one way to effect lifestyle changes. "There's tremendous waste in the United States, but if people feel they can keep wasting things, if no one looks down on them when they water the pavement during a drought, for instance, presumably they will continue," he said. "But if they see everyone else doing something for the environment, especially the leaders, then we're likely to see change." Source: Sapa-AFP

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