One of the most frequently repeated arguments against restrictions on consumption and carbon pollution is that, potentially, it could reduce the quality of life for many people in the developed world. But increasingly, carbon-friendly products are proving they can provide as much luxury and comfort of living, while increasing long term sustainability in the process.  

Skepticsglobalwarming.com sums up the lifestyle argument against management of global warming emissions. While crediting Al Gore’s plan to meet energy needs with renewable energy with being ambitious, the author expresses concern that if energy can't meet demand, “...will we be forced to grow our own gardens, hunt our own food and live off the land, just as they did in the stone ages [sic]?   This is how liberal environmentalists define progressive.  Anti-economic growth, anti-transportation and vast communities working to sustain each other and give to the government the fruits of their labor.  We call this socialism in America.  And it’s anything but progressive.”

A bleak picture, no doubt. But is it realistic? Certainly, our present levels of consumption would present serious challenges to a power grid fueled entirely with renewable sources. But this assumes that the things we enjoy cannot be brought about with less energy. Consider the problem of the heated pool: even with relatively efficient propane gas heat, pools can be massive energy sinks. That having been said, who wants an icy cold dip on a cool summer night? Might as well just jump in a pond, right?

The thing is, there’s a low-carbon solution: the solar pool cover.  Even in the cloudy Northeast, Newsweek business columnist Daniel Gross columnist found it a perfectly effective replacement for the propane heater, with no more stone-age struggle than simply peeling the thing back every time he wanted to swim. Even the $450 outlay for purchase and installation was easily made up in the savings on fuel; so much for the wealth redistribution conspiracy, I guess.

While it’s easy to pin the anti-business, anti-technology tag on the sustainability movement, the fact remains that limitations in resource consumption have far more power to drive technology than a sparkling new set of nuclear power plants or offshore oil rigs. In fact, the oil industry itself sprung up in part as a cheaper alternative to the labor-intensive practice of whaling. The blossoming of wireless technologies over the past decade has had as much to do with increases in global copper prices as it did with convenience and consumer demand.  Shortages in precious metals even led to the widespread acceptance of paper money, the convenience of which most Americans seem unwilling to do without today.

So yes, a wholesale changeover to renewable energy will most definitely shake up a few sectors of the economy. But to simply say it will deal an irretrievable death blow to the American consumer engine is to deny the free market’s long established ability to adapt with speed and precision to rapidly changing economic conditions.

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