The Conservation Paradox

The Conservation Paradox

Every once and a while, when I’m able to step back from the immediate pressures of keeping up with the next deadline, I reflect on the bigger picture of what we’re collectively doing—at

EBN and elsewhere—to advance sustainability. I’m troubled by a paradox: the more successful we are at advancing resource efficiency, the more difficult it is to convince the unconverted of the need for change.

Think about that. If we do a really good job at convincing people to conserve energy (by building more energy-efficient buildings or driving more fuel-efficient cars, for example) our detractors will be correct in pointing out that we’re

not running out of anything. And the cadre of naysayers who refuse to conserve will be able to keep driving their SUVs and building their starter-castles with heated driveways. If the energy efficiency of the U.S. economy were today what it was in 1973, we would be spending an additional $300 billion per year for energy, according to Howard Geller of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. This increased efficiency has helped keep the price of energy at the low levels we currently enjoy. But you rarely hear the beneficiaries of these low energy prices offering thanks to the weatherization crews or government regulators who mandate appliance efficiency or bicycle commuters or nonprofit organizations who have helped to achieve such savings. Instead we only hear, “see, there’s not a problem.”

Sometimes—during my darker moments—I wonder if our cause would have a greater chance of success in the long run if we were to wait until the situation worsened, until even the most irrational Rush Limbaughs of the world were forced to admit that a paradigm shift was needed and that we should plunge headlong into a Manhattan-Project-like drive for sustainability. The slogan for this philosophy might be “hasten the solar age—drive an SUV.”

No. The right thing to do is still to promote resource efficiency. Even if “the big paradigm shift” comes a little later because of our efforts, we’re demonstrating what the potential is and showing how change can be accomplished when the political will to do so emerges.

— Alex Wilson