Changing tactics in climate politics
OCT 25, 2010
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.024772
New York Times : In six Kansas towns recently, the Climate and Energy Project tried a new tactic, called the Take Charge Challenge , to get citizens to reduce their fossil-fuel emissions. Rather than focus on global warming and government attempts to regulate greenhouse-gas emissionstwo topics that have met with a lot of resistance therethe yearlong challenge centered instead on such issues as thrift and patriotism. As part of the program, schoolchildren searched for “vampire” electric loads (appliances that draw energy even when they are nominally off), residents replaced the town’s Christmas tree lights with energy-efficient LEDs, and on Valentine’s Day restaurants served their meals by candlelight. The strategy seems to have worked because energy use in the towns declined as much as 5% relative to other areas, according to Leslie Kaufman of the New York Times.
© 2010 American Institute of Physics
