Are climate change zealots hypocrites? People who claim to be worried about global warming use MORE electricity, says study

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Are climate change zealots hypocrites? People who claim to be worried about global warming use MORE electricity, says study

Posted by sciencetech-blog on Tuesday, July 15, 2014 Label:

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People who claim to be concerned about global warming are in fact the ones using more electricity, according to a recent study.

The research claims that these same people are often in denial about how much energy they use and widely underestimate their consumption.

Those concerned about climate change use more than 1,500kw/h of extra electricity each year, the study found.

People who claim to be concerned about global warming are in fact the ones using more electricity, according to a recent study

Commissioned by the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), the study used data on the electricity use of 250 families over a year.

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The results could partially be due to age demographics, with the over 65s shown to be more careful with electricity while also being less worried about climate change, according to a report by Matthew Holehouse in the Telegraph.

When pensioners were discounted from the study, scientists found only a 'weak trend' to show those who talk reducing reliance on fossil fuels do anything to reduce their energy need.

Earlier today, advisors to DECC said the UK will fail to meet its targets to cut greenhouse gases over the next decade without stronger and more ambitious policies

COULD EATING LESS MEAT AND DAIRY MITIGATE CLIMATE CHANGE?

Emissions from agriculture threaten to keep increasing as global meat and dairy consumption increases, according to a report release earlier this year.

If agricultural emissions are not addressed, nitrous oxide from fields and methane from livestock may double by 2070. This alone would make meeting the climate target essentially impossible.

'We have shown that reducing meat and dairy consumption is key to bringing agricultural climate pollution down to safe levels,' said Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.

'Broad dietary change can take a long time. We should already be thinking about how we can make our food more climate friendly.'

By 2050, estimates indicate that beef and lamb will account for half of all agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, while only contributing three per cent of human calorie intake.

Cheese and other dairy products will account for about one quarter of total agricultural climate pollution.

The study suggests a different approach needs to be taken if people are to reduce their energy consumption.

The researchers wrote: '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.

'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.

'When we separated the pensioner households from the younger ones, there was no significant relationship between this statement and energy use in the pensioner group, and only a weak trend among younger households.'

Earlier today, advisors to DECC said the UK will fail to meet its targets to cut greenhouse gases over the next decade without stronger and more ambitious policies.

The Committee on Climate Change highlighted failures in policies such as improving the energy efficiency of homes, where the installment of insulation has plummeted since new schemes were introduced last year.

Under current rates of progress, the country is set to cut its emissions by around 21 per cent to 23 per cent between 2013 and 2025, well short of the 31 per cent set out in the 'carbon budgets'.

The Obama administration, meanwhile, has pledged to cut its emissions by 30 per cent by 2030, and will be pushing each country to adopt their own 'aggressive' targets to do their fair share at G20 in November.