catch said:
I'm anti-car to a large extent, but me and my wife own one
I actually think that putting all the emphasis on personal 'lifestyle' choices is a mistake.
While I do understand that people want to 'do their bit' to save the environment, it is worth pointing out that big business and big government is very happy to offload all the burden (and guilt) onto 'consumers'. They can then make people feel like they can't complain unless they buy the premium priced 'green' products, spend their own time sorting out recycables and carting them to recycling banks, tell them to drive less but keep public transport prices some of the highest in the world and so forth.
While some people find a green lifestyle is empowering because they find they can break away from consumerism and they actually end up saving money - many others will find that they struggle to access 'green' products and find that they are being asked to take on extra burdens that should really be taken on by companies (eg who generate excess packaging) and government (who don't collect all recyclables). They are also being asked to make almost impossible decisions - told to encourage their kids to cycle more yet not given any traffic claming or cycle lanes so it is safe enough to do so, in fact facing increased traffic due to local planning decisions. They may well be told to 'shop locally' only to be faced with the local council approving new out of town supermarkets selling a massive range of goods which put whole ranges of local shops out of business - shops which are often replaced by fast food outlets and restaurants.
By focussing on people as "consumers" (green or otherwise) rather than "citizens" it disempowers them and channels them away from demanding changes in government and in the marketplace. They are expected to 'buy' their way green, and to take on the full burden of living a green lifestyle - despite the fact that as isolated individuals they are at the mercy of well coordinated and massively financed business interests and highly entrenched and unaccountable government bureaucracies which largely exist to service business and themselves (I am speaking here of the organisations and structures themselves regardless of the good intentions of the individuals who work for them - I know that there are many good and well intentioned people who work for local government and the public sector).
I would argue that rather than feel guilty about car owning - and therefore maybe feeling unable to speak out about green transport - people should reject this 'person as consumer' model and adopt instead a 'person as citizen' approach. In this it doesn't matter that you don't cycle everywhere or own a car - the fact is that people as citizens have an absolute right to hold companies and government to account for what they are doing, and demand the large structural changes that will really make a difference.
To use a parallel example: Imagine the UK pre-NHS - It would really be pointless tell people that "they really should try harder to be healthy". Maybe they could make an incremental difference through indivudual actions, lifestyle, diet and hygiene etc - but the big difference comes when you actually set up a National Health Service. Additionally big differences come when you outlaw unsafe work practises, toxic pollution, unsafe housing, dangerous products and all the other ways that the unchecked market would otherwise endager people's health. These changes came through political action, not through making people feel guilty about their own lifestyles.
Yes there is a place for pioneers of a 'green lifestyle' (the room I am sitting in has a solar panel on the roof helping heat the water, which means that this summer there has been no need to switch on the gas boiler) but we really need to avoid disempowering "people as citizens" and avoid buying into the "people as consumers" model that companies would prefer to see.
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