Story submitted by Eric Worrall
A UK government study has concluded that people concerned about global warming, on average, use more electricity than climate skeptics.
Some highlights from the study follow.
On the “benefits” of switching off appliances;
“There is some link between households’ stated behaviour towards switching off unused appliances and electricity use, but there is seldom a statistically significant relationship (p-value 0.05 or less) between stated and actual behaviour. This means that policy-makers cannot rely on stated behaviours alone in assessing how often householders turn off unused TVs and desktop computers, or how much hot water they use for showers.”
On the (inverse!) correlation between environmental belief and energy use;
“Taken all together, householders who strongly agreed they were not worried about climate change because it was too far in the future in fact used less electricity rather than more, counter to the hypothesis that households concerned about climate change use less electricity.”
The study noted however that this was largely due to the fact most climate skeptics were older and poorer than people who expressed strong feelings about green issues.
“However, we found this was largely due to the effect of age, as older households were much more likely to agree with this statement, and also had lower energy consumption.”
Peter Lilley, a Conservative member of the Commons Energy and Climate Change committee, said:
“The survey exposes the hypocrisy of many who claim to be ‘green’: the greater the concern people express about global warming the less they do to reduce their energy usage.”
The study is available here:
What a great story of hypocrisy! Thanks for this.
However, the story I really want to see is about a study of the drinking habits of alarmists vs skeptics. That would be interesting! (I bet the alarmists drink more since the news is all bad for them most of the time)
For some time I have been pondering the irony of young green things with their xboxes, i phones, android tablets etc tellingme I need to use less electricity ti save the planet.
The word is hypocrisy. Do as I say, not as I do. Algore is famous for that.
“telling me”…….”to save” .Proof before posting numbskull.
So they want to install smart meters in every home so that the punters will no longer have a choice in when they switch off their appliances.
This makes perfect sense. Those who read AceofSpades might recall a piece that Ace did a while ago regarding climate change belief as a sort of social indicator of “right thinking”. It seems entirely consistent with that idea that the more people talk about it publicly and the more they profess to worry about it, the less need they feel to take any actual responsibility. Having positioned themselves as Good Citizens they are absolved from the suffering that actually following through would inflict on them.
I have spent most of my adult life working in HVAC and energy. I wish i could say I was even a little bit surprised by this.
In much the same way that the most hardline religious people tend to be the least moral. Having the “correct” ideology is often felt to be enough.
Reblogged this on Cornwall Wind Watch and commented:
they certainly produce more hot air.
Hypocrisy?
Think of all the Greenpeace executives flying to work, etc.
Think of all the Hollywood Greens jetting around saving the planet
Think of Jim Hansen flying first class with his wife around the world to give talks on CO2 emissions
Think of Al Gore’s mansion and all the power it consumes and his crusier withall the fuel it uses
There is no hypocrisy if you are savng the planet. All people are equal but Greenies are more equal than others!
Is it only me who thinks that the pigs in Animal Farmseem a fitting comparson to the Greens?
I would characterise myself as a strong sceptic, but I’m quite frugal: I don’t use a car, I use a bike and I normally have just a single 60 watt bulb on. The only time I put all my lights on is to celebrate Earth Hour.
A close acquaintance of mine is a true global warming believer. When I visit, pretty well all the lights are on all the time, and very often the central heating is turned up so high that I find it very uncomfortable.
Go figure, as you Americans like to say!
Chris
To be fair, you’d want to compare energy usage of ‘greens’ with their demographic peers before claiming hypocrisy. If the big correlation is between energy use and age (or income), that effect could easily swamp real differences based on ideology.
We’re very eager to jump all over flawed analyses – we shouldn’t commit the same mistakes ourselves.
Feeling is far more important than doing……easier too.
Nobody can do hypocrisy like lefties. Gore leads from the front with his energy-guzzling life-style of global preaching. And recall all the anti-capitalism demos with protestors clutching their iphones, starbucks coffee and wearing Timberland. ‘Yeah, big companies, what have they ever done for us?’
I can understand that the older members of the population use less energy as on their incomes they can’t afford the green-tax hiked energy bills so have to economise.
The great ‘smart’ meter project has hit a few snags. Unresolved questions over security of access to the system. The so-called selling point of seeing your consumption with the handy gadget fails in blocks of flats where the meters are located in the basement – the signal won’t go through the floors. In rural areas there is no signal to transmit the data. It is going to be optional but would become compulsory once critical mass is achieved. And finally, the great projected cost savings don’t add up either as the novelty of the handy gadget wears off after a few months. I know, I have a couple of the electricity readers and don’t bother with either any more.
pbft – Demographics be damned. One who vocally endorses a green lifestyle should educate themself and consume less than the most energy effficient non-supporter regardless of demographics. Otherwise they should just shut up and sit down.
“who strongly agreed they were not worried about climate change because it was too far in the future”
I’m not worried about climate change, but it has nothing to do with the timescale.
I put the Telegraph link to this in WUWT “tips and notes” yesterday.
Elmer Gantry’s Theory of Special Relativity: The more special you think your insight is, the more likely you are to promote and exploit it with others while ignoring it for yourself.
Old and poor = frugal.
Young and rich = wasteful.
Ideology is just decoration on simple economics and life experience.
They try and claim that the apparent hypocrisy of those most worried about climate change using more energy is because of an age issue, with older people being less worried and using less energy anyways. But read their report. Those younger than 65 who are most worried about climate change use a mean of 4700 kWh/year while those younger than 65 that are least worried about climate change use a mean of 2800 kWh/year. Even if we look at all younger than 65 worried about climate change we get 4508 kWh/year versus 3700 kWh/year for those not worried. Now the number of samples is low but how can they claim that it was the effect of those older than 65 that skewed the results?
One should never underestimate the Greenies’ ability to absolve themselves of their “carbon sins”.
Gary says at July 15, 2014 at 5:38 am
Agreed.
But I think wealth and social class more significant than age. There are fewer old fools than the young and foolish but you will find them if you look.
It would appear that being “green” requires a certain level of income. Mass produced goods are cheaper than the trendy alternative, renewable energy costs more than reliable energy and so on…
Also certain industries and services use less energy per output than others (financial services and teaching, for example, compared to steel production and forestry). People employed in those industries and services are less likely to understand about the necessity of energy production; it’s value and the human / social / economic cost of making it more expensive.
If you judge people by their “walk”, then most “green” people aren’t.
RTB says:
July 15, 2014 at 4:37 am
In much the same way that the most hardline religious people tend to be the least moral.
well, that was totally uncalled for….
kenw says July 15, 2014 at 6:16 am
It was, wasn’t it?
Some people are just so judgemental.
But on the internet anyone can comes across as a bit bigoted.
He may be a charming bloke in person.
Let’s not throw stones.