The Environmental Protection Agency kicked off Energy Awareness Month in
October with the slogan “change a light, change the world,” and encouraged
Americans to buy compact fluorescent lights instead of conventional incandescent
bulbs.
Useful as that may be, picking a large sport utility vehicle that goes two
miles farther on a gallon of gasoline than the least-efficient S.U.V.’s would
have an impact on emissions of global warming gases about five times larger than
replacing five 60-watt incandescent bulbs. The dollar savings would be about 10
times larger. And the more-efficient light bulbs would have a negligible effect
on oil consumption.
Almost everything Americans do uses energy, making the earth warmer and purses
thinner, and often raising demand for oil from unstable places. People eager to
reduce their consumption can take many steps, but the size of their benefit — or
cost — is not always evident.
The New York Times compared a number of such steps by three standards —
reduction in global warming gases emitted, reduction in oil consumed and the
dollar savings.
The calculations, shown in the accompanying chart, found that while choosing ...