[BabyPeanut]

I think most US Americans would rather take out a second mortgage to pay for rising energy costs than install a single energy saving device.

[Peepers]

Of course! It's the American Way! Go deeper into debt to support a lifestyle that's unsustainable in the first place, economically and environmentally speaking. God Bless the USA!

P.S. I'm an American and sometimes ashamed to admit it

[Drjay]

It is hard to get people to change their way of thinking. It usually takes a crisis or two. Hold on to your hats.

[aahala]

In order to change your way of thinking you must have a way
of thinking to begin with. And that's part of the problem.

[Trindelm]

still see plenty of SUV's driving around with all the features:
4 wheel drive, ABS, Onstar Navigation, Leather Interiors
and DriverSide Douchebags

[skyemoor]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BabyPeanut', 'I') think most US Americans would rather take out a second mortgage to pay for rising energy costs than install a single energy saving device.

[fossilnut2]

Yes and no.

Americans are energy pigs (as are we Canadians). They just don't get it.

Hopeless? No way. The economic and scientific infrastructure in the USA is second to none in history. American society pulled off the Manhatten Project, put a man on the Moon and has more Nobel Prize winners than there are grey cells in Mr. Bush's head.

Americans aren't hopeless. Far from it. Americans are unmotivated. Motivated Americans are like that Tasmanian Devil on Bugs Bunny or our dog when he hears the can opener.

[strider3700]

The comment I hear all the time is CF bulbs are too slow to turn on so people don't install them.

My entire house is CF bulbs including the outside flood lights. The inside bulbs come on instantly and are up to full brightness within 10 seconds. The outside floods take a whole second to come on and take a couple of minutes to get to glaring white see my house from space brightness.

I also hang my laundry all summer on the clothes line in back. It takes a whole 5 minutes/load to get on the line and I'm limited to about 3 loads/sunny day.

All of the other improvements have had zero noticable impact on my life. The pump for my water still pumps water it just uses 10% the electricity.

Add in other efficiency improvements I've done on the house and I'm using 60% less electricity then I did when I first moved in. I'd say that my lifestyle is still damn cushy with most of the improvements being completely invisible

[DesertBear2]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('strider3700', '
')
My entire house is CF bulbs including the outside flood lights. The inside bulbs come on instantly and are up to full brightness within 10 seconds. The outside floods take a whole second to come on and take a couple of minutes to get to glaring white see my house from space brightness.

[MrBill]

Energy consumption is forecast to increase 30-50% in the next 25-years, but energy consumption will increase the most in the developing world, maybe 70% while only 30% in the developed world. This is really a global problem, and although Americans and Canadians are part of the problem, they are not the only problem.

Although I can appreciate your sentiments. It is almost like none of the lessons of the first oil shocks in the 70's even registered and pretty soon it was back to business as normal? It is a shame. A couple of lost decades which would have made an even bigger impact today, for instance, even if US autos got the same fuel economy as in Europe and a few more refineries had been built with cleaner & more efficient technology?

[NonToxic]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('DesertBear2', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('strider3700', '
')
My entire house is CF bulbs including the outside flood lights. The inside bulbs come on instantly and are up to full brightness within 10 seconds. The outside floods take a whole second to come on and take a couple of minutes to get to glaring white see my house from space brightness.

[aahala]

Hoping not to hijack the thread, I will add the story of my recent
experience on another site.

I got involved in a thread about the refinery issue, and included some
info I received from posters here.

I noted it would take a lot of money and time to build up refinery capacity
to present demand, and it might be better, faster and cheaper to try to
reduce US demand.

I mentioned the per capita energy useage, the US double that of Germany and Japan and 150 times that of some third world country. Boy did I get flamed. Of course, I should have known it was our money and we will
spend it on whatever we damned well please.

[SchroedingersCat]

Americans might be wasteful and easily manipulated, but we are hard-working and resourceful as well.

We might use 25% of the oil, but we produce over 22% of the world's GDP.

[julianj]

How much of that is to do with financial speculation, rather than actually making things?

[SchroedingersCat]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('julianj', 'H')ow much of that is to do with financial speculation, rather than actually making things?

[LadyRuby]

Yes, Americans aren't, in general, the most brilliant but I think it comes down to a lot of misinformation. When Exxon is telling us there are decades worth of energy and what we're experiencing now is just a short-term thing (hurricanes, refineries, etc.), we make poor decisions.

It's really time to set the record straight. Once Americans realize this isn't a short-term thing I think they would be more willing to make real changes.

[fossilnut2]

Shroedinger that's a good point. Bauxite, for example, is imported into Canada from the West Indies and South America. Large amounts of energy are needed to refine bauxite ore into aluminum. Large hydro electric projects were needed and these plants, of course, are all part of Canada's 'per capita' energy consumption.

Resources can take large amounts of energy. Especially mining, forestry, etc. Many European countries with lower per capita energy consumption are resource poor. Forestry workers in Idaho or British Columbia etc. often to live in sparsely populated areas, forest machinery is needed, mills, etc. The end user, maybe a furniture factory in Denmark, is less energy intensive.

This isn't to excuse North American's foolish overuse of energy but there is an 'apple and oranges' that must be remebered.

Canada, for example, could move towards its Kyota goals by closing down energy intensive mining, forestry, etc. The countries who wanted those types of materials would then have to expend valuable oil, etc. to produce them with much less efficient and much more expensive energy.