First off, I’m not a global warming denying nutter. I believe it is happening and caused in great part by man.
But if global warming and other environmental problems really are as dire as Al Gore claims in “An Inconvenient Truth,” does it really make all that much difference whether we dry our hands with the air blower instead of paper towels (or the other way around as some would contend), or use energy saving shower heads, or recycled toilet paper or carbon offsets when we fly - you get the idea - especially when people in developing countries like China or India don’t really appear to give a shit about this stuff? It just seems like a waste of time focusing on petty matters like that that when any changes that need to occur need to happen on a pretty large scale.
In the big scheme of things, will personal "green" lifestyle changes do much to stem global warming?
Well…every little bit helps. But overall, yeah, it’s not going to make much of a difference if you drive around in a Prius and put anti-vampire power regulators on all of your outlets. It’s really not going to make that much of a difference if, say, all of Europe actually manages to comply with the Kyoto II accords either, not if Gore et al are correct. At this point, assuming all their models are correct, it’s already happening, and most likely nothing we do will mitigate things, at least not in the short or medium term.
This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t be moving to a greener energy and personal transport system, but short of truly draconian measures it’s just not going to make that much difference. JMHO there, of course.
-XT