{"id":1708,"date":"2009-04-22T13:26:46","date_gmt":"2009-04-22T00:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/?p=1708"},"modified":"2009-04-22T13:28:18","modified_gmt":"2009-04-22T00:28:18","slug":"every-big-helps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/archives\/1708","title":{"rendered":"Every big helps"},"content":{"rendered":"

More from MacKay<\/a>:<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve established that the UK\u2019s present lifestyle can\u2019t be sustained on the UK\u2019s own renewables (except with the industrialization of country-sized areas of land and sea). So, what are our options, if we wish to get off fossil fuels and live sustainably? We can balance the energy budget either by reducing demand, or by increasing supply, or, of course, by doing both.
\n   Have no illusions. To achieve our goal of getting off fossil fuels, these reductions in demand and increases in supply must be big. Don\u2019t be distracted by the myth that \u201cevery little helps.\u201d If everyone does a little, we\u2019ll achieve only a little. We must do a lot. What\u2019s required are big changes in demand and in supply.
\n   \u201cBut surely, if 60 million people all do a little, it\u2019ll add up to a lot?\u201d No. This \u201cif-everyone\u201d multiplying machine is just a way of making something small sound big. The \u201cif-everyone\u201d multiplying machine churns out inspirational statements of the form \u201cif everyone did X, then it would provide enough energy\/water\/gas to do Y,\u201d where Y sounds impressive. Is it surprising that Y sounds big? Of course not. We got Y by multiplying X by the number of people involved \u2013 60 million or so! Here\u2019s an example from the Conservative Party\u2019s otherwise straight-talking Blueprint for a Green Economy<\/em>:<\/p>\n

The mobile phone charger averages around … 1W consumption, but if every one of the country\u2019s 25 million mobile phones chargers were left plugged in and switched on they would consume enough electricity (219GWh) to power 66 000 homes for one year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

66 000? Wow, what a lot of homes! Switch off the chargers! 66 000 sounds a lot, but the sensible thing to compare it with is the total number of homes that we\u2019re imagining would participate in this feat of conservation, namely 25 million homes. 66 000 is just one quarter of one percent of 25 million. So while the statement quoted above is true, I think a calmer way to put it is:<\/p>\n

If you leave your mobile phone charger plugged in, it uses one quarter of one percent of your home\u2019s electricity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And if everyone does it?<\/p>\n

If everyone leaves their mobile phone charger plugged in, those chargers will use one quarter of one percent of their homes\u2019 electricity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The \u201cif-everyone\u201d multiplying machine is a bad thing because it deflects people\u2019s attention towards 25million minnows instead of 25million sharks. The mantra \u201cLittle changes can make a big difference\u201d is bunkum, when applied to climate change and power. It may be true that \u201cmany people doing a little adds up to a lot,\u201d if all those \u201clittles\u201d are somehow focused into a single \u201clot\u201d \u2013 for example, if one million people donate \u00a310 to one accidentvictim, then the victim receives \u00a310 million. That\u2019s a lot. But power is a very different thing. We all use power. So to achieve a \u201cbig difference\u201d in total power consumption, you need almost everyone to make a \u201cbig\u201d difference to their own power consumption.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More from MacKay: We\u2019ve established that the UK\u2019s present lifestyle can\u2019t be sustained on the UK\u2019s own renewables (except with the industrialization of country-sized areas of land and sea). So, what are our options, if we wish to get off fossil fuels and live sustainably? We can balance the energy budget either by reducing demand, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1708"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1711,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1708\/revisions\/1711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}