[avar]

Yeah let's take fuel efficiency. If Americans all still drove cars with 60s fuel economy, but only drove as much per year as Germans do, they'd still (give or take) be emitting the same amount as they are now[2][3].

Now, why do they drive so much and drive such inefficient cars? It's largely because fuel is so much cheaper in the US than in the EU.

What I was trying to get at in my original comment is not that we should all solve climate change by personal action, and that public policy shouldn't be involved. I wish I could pay more taxes so the country I'm living in would migrate to renewables faster.

Rather, it's that if you look at how concerned people are politically about climate change, and then look at their revealed preferences, both when it comes to what they do personally and what they'd really stand for politically, it turns out that in the aggregate they don't take the problem seriously.

How many people who say "we must do something" in the US would say put up with a 100% increase in fuel taxes (bringing it in more in line with the EU)? I bet you'd go from 50% approval to 5% approval pretty fast.

1. http://internationalcomparisons.org/environment/transportati...

2. http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/fact-sheet...