A  recent New York Times Magazine article, Why Isn’t the Brain Green? seeks to answer one of my unanswerable questions:  Why do people resist making simple lifestyle changes that have the potential to reduce climate change and ensure a clean environment for future generations?

“CRED (The Center for Research on Environmental Decisions) researchers consider global warming a singular opportunity to study how we react to long-term trade-offs, in the form of sacrifices we might make now in exchange for uncertain climate benefits far off in the future. And the research also has the potential to improve environmental messages, policies and technologies so that they are more in tune with the quirky workings of our minds.”

Potential lifestyle changes can be easy, yet in reality the general population is slow to adopt them.  For example, if every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified compact fluorescent bulb, enough energy would be saved to light more than 3 million homes for a year (U.S. EPA. http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls). Yet not all households currently use fluorescent bulbs. If Americans are slow to integrate technology as simple as a light bulb, how are we supposed to solve the Climate Crisis?

Rather than summarizing the article, which is lengthy, I encourage you to read it and take a few minutes to delve into psychology. 

Every day at Community Energy, we ask people to pay a little more for their electricity. Similar to light bulbs, it is an easy way to get involved and make a positive difference to combat climate change. In our marketing and education efforts, we try to find the best ways to communicate with people to help them make a buying decision that positively impacts the environment. Currently, over 110,000 residential customers have chosen to support Green Power and reduce their impact on climate change!

We’d love to hear your comments on why you chose to buy, or are considering, clean power. As well, we'd love to hear any small actions you take to positively affect our environment.