Zero Tolerance wrote:
On Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:12:29 +0100, "Steve Thackery"
wrote:

Have you heard of Pareto analysis? To over-simplify, you find out
what the big contributors are, and tackle them first, thus making a
big difference early on. If you want to make a big difference you
need to tackle the big stuff. My major concern is that the public
now thinks they can save the planet by using CFLs and switching
their telly off at the wall.

60 million people doing anything would easily have a big effect.

If the whole of the UK sank overnight, never to inconvenience another
electron, China's increase in electricity generation at present rates would
negate that in under a year.

So, 60 million people saving, say, even an unlikely quarter of their
domestic electricity consumption, which in itself is only a third of all the
electricity consumption in the UK, would be negated by China in under a
month. And China is just one of the countries of the world increasing its
power consumption year on year. Add in India, Brazil and Russia, and you're
probably talking of delaying global warming if everyone here 'did
something', by 10 days at most.

You may call that a 'big effect'. I call it trivial.