If an economics professor had his way, the ”sweater police” might soon be knocking at your door as part of a campaign to combat climate change.
Joergen Randers, an environmental expert at the Norwegian School of Management, has puzzled for years over the question: what’s the easiest way to slow global warming?
After weighing ideas like phasing out coal-fired power plants, raising prices for energy or public subsidies for wind or solar power, he has finally come up with his answer: force people to wear sweaters indoors in cool climates. Then they will use less coal, oil or gas for heating.
If it was compulsory to wear a sweater, or an additional sweater if you already have one on, it would be pretty unbearable to have the thermostat at the current levels, he told me.
So maybe we should all get knitting or start farming sheep? The New Zealand and Australian wool industries would love his idea.
Even Randers admits its a sort of joke but reckons that, from a purely economic point of view, it would be the most effective way of getting tens of millions of people to save energy. Many governments have been telling people for years to turn down the heating but it hasnt worked, he says.
“No political party in a democracy would ever dare to make this proposal to make people wear sweaters because then you would have to have sweater police to enforce it. They would have to have powers to enter anyones home for spot checks. And to many that might sound like Big Brother surveillance or the Spanish Inquisition.
Do you agree? Should we embrace Randers’ ideas or just say “baah”?
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4 comments so far
I most certainly like the idea of changing everyone’s thermometer settings for the winter. Since I’m living in my first apartment and paying my first electric bill next month, I already thought to do that. How we would enforce it, I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to have sweater police.
- Posted by DionnaI think it would not be feasible to make it compulsory as it will definitely get the people agitated.
- Posted by Rajneesh Sharmawhat is definitely feasible is that we can accumulate numbers on the matter. I mean if the govts try to inform people about the benefits of adopting such measures giving them figures like the amount of fuel that they can save and the decrease in their monthly expenditure over the fuel, as well as the medical benefits as a large number of people who have to walk in and out a lot get affected by bad health due to sudden changes in temperatures.
I believe if we can have such a calculated approach the people will themselves slowly but gradually adopt such measures on their own.
Wearing more wollen clothing in the house, rather than increasing the heating, is a brilliant idea to reduce our dependence on coal/oil/gas…
It will be quite effective and a cost saving measure. But having sweater police is not a a bright idea. Try to force anything and it will most certainly get people agitated and they will find ways and means to go around it.
As Rajneesh says, the best way to go forward is educating and informing people on the advantages of using less heating during winters, and I would also say maybe even switching it off during spring, early autumn.
- Posted by Nachiket KelkarSweater Police? Probably not! But how about bragging rights? I like to boast of my early apartment days chilling out in 55 degree thermometer settings during the winter just to save money on my heating bills. You bet I had sweaters, hoods, blankets and my woman (now my wife) to keep me warm. Let’s stick with the basics. Hit people where it hurts, right in the wallet. That’s the driving force. Anyone who wants energy produced from burning coal should be willing to pay dearly for it. Otherwise, we should actively embrace responsibility and support eco-friendly technologies.
- Posted by Matt Davis