Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Americans Least Green - and Feel Least Guilt

National Geographic conducted a survey of people in 17 different countries to create the Greendex report which summarizes the Green feelings and activities of the citizens. The survey found that Americans have the least green habits but seem to think that individuals can have the most impact on the environment by being green. America has been ranked as least green since 2008 while this year China and India were at the top. The article makes the comment that the reason China may seem more green (more likely to ride bike or walk to destinations) may be because they just don't have as many cars available. One researcher suggested that the reason that Americans don't feel guilty about our environmental impact is because many of us don't accept that the problem exists. It seems like America is trying hard to get environmental awareness out in the open but it's an uphill battle against people who don't care or are too lazy to react.




greendex-countries-less-green-than-believed_56490_600x450.jpg

Photograph by Eugene Hoshiko, AP




http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120712-greendex-environment-green-sustainable-science-consumers-world/
Posted by at

3 comments:

  1. UnknownJuly 18, 2012 at 3:40 PM

    This is a good article as it touches upon some of the themes and actions that have been mentioned in Tainted Desert. The fact that we as people refuse to acknowledge the problems which occur under our nose is a source of concern. The issues with climate change and global warming are becoming physical manifestations e.g. floods. In reference to your post I believe that people have not acknowledged it simply because they have not directly affected by it. Makes one wonder whether if it will be this way till its to late. Would like to know if there are measures to push people out of this denial.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Daniel FloydJuly 23, 2012 at 4:37 AM

    The correlation between lack of environmental guilt and environmentally irresponsible lifestyles for Americans is not surprising. Unfortunately, for the typical American to feel effected it means either that the laws permitting some previously enjoyed behaviour have changed or that the costs associated with said hobby or pasttime have gone up considerably. At the same time, China's high ranking on the scale sited in the article is as much a product of cars not being available to most of its population as anything else. As China continues to industrialize and its citizens become more likely to have access to the material goods associated with a more Western lifestyle, it will undoubtedly do worse in these rankings.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownJuly 24, 2012 at 6:40 PM

    The other problem with the US vs. China is that Americans in general are individualists and the Chinese in general are collectivists. This means that Americans are going to be more likely to believe personal change of habits such as biking more or taking shorter cooler showers will have an impact. While true, the American system of living is set up to expend a lot of energy. Most American cities are oriented around the car and suburbs. This has a profound impact on what choices people will make. It is very difficult to bike in Dallas, even if you want to make that choice. It is really an illusion of choice Americans give themselves, because people can not operate entirely outside of the society in which they function. Even if a substantial amount of people wanted to bike more, the system of highways and construction is set up that it would take a massive change to reorganise that. If showers included metrics on how many minutes you've been in them and their temperature and exactly how much that contributed to their water and gas/electric bills then people would take shorter cooler showers.

    The Chinese do not have the same ability to waste as Americans and so they individually use less because the systems of development they have set up support that.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)