Carbon footprints

I was browsing the New York Times today, and I came across this interesting column: "Are We Ready to Track Carbon Footprints?". The idea is that people need an appropriate nudge in the right direction in order to reduce their carbon footprint. People are notoriously poor at planning for abstract events somewhere in the future, especially when we don't even understand the situation. Something like climate change is something that is difficult to see, understand, or deal with. I particularly liked this commentary in the middle:

A study in California showed that when the monthly electric bill listed the average consumption in the neighborhood, the people in above-average households significantly decreased their consumption.

Meanwhile, the people with the below-average bills reacted by significantly increasing their consumption — not exactly the goal of the project.

That reaction was avoided when the bill featured a little drawing along with the numbers: a smiling face on a below-average bill or a frowning face on an above-average bill. After that simple nudge, the heavy users made even bigger cuts in consumption, while the light users remained frugal.

What we need is a way to deliver the message to people when they are consuming more than their fair share, as well as a way to give people a pat on the back when they are doing something good for the Earth.

Take our house. Although I know how much electricity we use at our house, and I have a vague idea of what the average is for the entire city, I have no idea how that compares to other households in our demographic, and I also don't know whether we are doing a good or bad job with our energy usage. I feel that we've done a lot to reduce our energy consumption, but it has been mostly low-hanging fruit. I'm always looking for ways to do more, but there are limits to the level of inconvenience I am willing to live with. I might be more encouraged if the system had more feedback built in.