When I give Climate Project presentations to elementary school students, I talk about how just one of them turning out the lights is nice but doesn't really have an impact, but imagine 10,000s or millions doing it.

Individuals won't solve Global Warming.

Nor will business action.

Nor will government decree.

Action at all levels ...

while you continue educating others about corporate abuses.I agree that it seems hopeless for me to conserve water when worldwide oil and gas producers use 3,066,000,000,000 gallons of water which is then permanently removed removed from our hydrologic cycle but we all have to make changes. Besides, you might at well make the lifestyle adjustments now so you will be ahead of the game.

The administration uses the excuse that we can't take action on climate change because China and India aren't and we don't want to give them a competitive advantage.  If everyone is waiting for the other guy to make the first move, we're stuck in place forever.

have found personal reasons for changing what I am doing on a personal level relative to energy use and overall consumption. The two reasons I found compelling for personal change were that I am learning new survival skills for when things get really bad, the other is that I am learning more about the psychology of change and how hard it is to change.

The benefit of the learning I do now about growing food, living on less, using less car based transportation is that I am gradually developing some skills and confidence in doing things differently and I imagine that I will be better prepared as things go south climate and economy wise.

Participating in my own personal psychology of change helps me understand how important and difficult the personal and cultural process of change is. As a country and species I think our most under appreciated aspect of the process of changing our energy system and consumption enough to stave off the worst case scenario of creating a hotter climate is that our identities have been formed in a culture of industrial capitalism and consumption driven economics. As I go through my own personal reactions to change I am better able to encourage others because I have some personal insight into my own resistance to change.

I am in full agreement that individual change matters very little in contributing to turning this around unless we get the big players in line, and they really don't want to line up. I also get pissed when people act as if it is the fault of the consuming individual and that somehow the "consumer" just needs to stop asking the corporations to keep producing all this stuff and making cheap gas for us. The corporations like to play as if they are just the helpless pawns blown about by the irrational desires of the consuming public, what a bunch of crap. The corporations created this mess for their own benefit so they could accumulate huge profits and pay none of the price of their economic externalities.

Of course what you do makes a difference; it makes the difference you can make.

I'm all for government action, but waiting for government action....well....

some people freed their slaves before the emancipation proclamation

some companies had safe workplaces before OSHA....

etc.

I don' think it's the issue of large corporations in many cases, but a failure of government policy.

In fact, major US soporations have urged the Bush aAdministration to pass manditory standards so there would be a clear basis to set goals, plan, budget, etc with a true "level playing field".  In the absence of that, many are addoption EU or indusry consortia sandards since they must meet standards eslewhere, and to compete globally in obtaining busness they cannot wait for the government to act.

Here is one such case if you Goggle and Wiki I'm sure you'll find others.

Who this hurts more is small to medium enterprises that may only operate in the US and hence get left behind due to the uncertianty of what standard wiil/would be.

In some cases, corporations are also far ahead of the government and even the public in general.

The US benifits slightly by default by a trickle-down effect from International standards (eg, flash water heaters mentoined upthread have been used in Europe and Asia for years) but this does not put American business in a leading position.

While Republicans assume the "free-market" and "volentary standards" will automatically promote innovation they are dreaming and have failed to do their homework on the rest of the world.Standards promote development and addoption of tecnology.

If every phone or computer used a different protocol, would telecomunications exist?

You are taking exactly the attitude of companies resisting this change.

In doing so, you make no positive contribution to solving the problem and also miss the benifits of doing so.

If all Americans take your attitude, it will be hopless for any progress to be achieved and the US will continue to decline while other countries advance.

I would like to point out that the many companies and individuals who are investing and innovating with or without government standards or regulations take some risk but also benifit from being leaders or fast followers. Those that wait too long will just be failures.

Private citizens are just as responsible for environmental degradation as corporations if not more (private activities actually tend to be less energy efficient than corporate ones - and consumers drive producers).

While I fully I recognize and support standardization and law (in fact I'm an active member of 3 standards organizations) the lack of standards is no excuse for inaction.

What you are saying is you refuse to take responsibility for your own actions and purposely neglect what you can control - the decisions you can make.

Do you always need a government regulation controling the behaviour of others to make decisions for yourself?

Is that the best you can do? To be part of the problem instead of the solution?

Sorry to put it so bountly, but I appreciate your honesty and hope you appreciate mine.