making an impact

In MacKay’s section “motivation”, he talks about the debate between wind turbines and nuclear power, and the different opinions of them while addressing that they do not actually discuss numbers to give us an idea of just how big of a problem some things are.

“This heated debate is fundamentally about numbers. How much energy could each source deliver, at what economic and social cost, and with what risks? But actual numbers are rarely mentioned. In public debates, people just say “Nuclear is a money pit” or “We have a huge amount of wave and wind.” The trouble with this sort of language is that it’s not sufficient to know that something is huge: we need to know how the one “huge” compares with another “huge,” namely our huge energy consumption. To make this comparison, we need numbers, not adjectives.” – MacKay, 3

The fact that we have been listening to other people’s opinions about how bad something is rather than knowing about it  for ourselves is probably why some do not always listen. To hear something is “really bad” can mean different things to different people, so it needs to be put in a way that we all understand. McKay also mentions how we need to be aware of how even though we say “every little bit helps”, if everyone only does a little, then we will on make a little bit of a change. For the state we are in we need to be making a larger impact, which will probably require changing many lifestyles completely. The problem with this is that we are too comfortable in our lifestyles, we have fallen in a routine that when someone says something is “making a huge impact” and “every little bit helps” , it will make us opt for doing only the smallest amount we can contribute just to stay in the comfort of our lifestyles. Many, including myself, would turn off their lights and unplug their chargers thinking they are making some kind of huge impact, but really it is only a small portion of the damage being done. McKay also mentions companies like BP and how even though they may sound like they are great examples in this green movement, their changes to be viewed as a more eco-friendly corporation is actually only a small change that everyone buys in to when we should be questioning just how big of a change they actually made.

“BP’s website, for example, celebrates the reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution they hope to achieve by changing the paint used for painting BP’s ships. Does anyone fall for this? Surely everyone will guess that it’s not the exterior paint job, it’s the stuff inside the tanker that deserves attention, if society’s CO2 emissions are to be significantly cut?” McKay, 3

To make a larger impact we need to start questioning what is already being done, instead of believing everything that is told to us. To make a larger movement, people need to be aware for themselves the impact that their lifestyles are making and how they can make a large impact of change, instead of just sticking with the small. We need to make living simple lives seem more appealing than the consumer’s lifestyle, which will be a never ending battle with corporations.