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The energy gap: the cost of living sustainably

The energy gap: the cost of living sustainably
Dan Damon
11 - 5 - 2005
    Between two families in northern India and western England, the BBC radio reporter Dan Damon conducts a unique social experiment in low-energy living.

    If governments of rich countries ever decided to act on climate change on a national level by forcing citizens to cut back their energy usage, what would happen? How long would it be before the first revolution? This year I learned what that future would be like while filming a series for BBC Radio 4 called “The Energy Gap”. Its producer Doreen Walton and I spent a week with the Prices, a typical family from Burton-upon-Trent in England’s midlands, who had agreed to live on the same amount of energy as a family in India, the Trikhas.

    Three days into their ordeal the Prices were cold and short-tempered, huddled on the sofa under a duvet, and playing cards by the light of camping lamps. They barely managed to hit their target to cut their energy use by two-thirds. They survived – just – because they took it all as a bit of a laugh, and they knew they could go “back to normal” soon.

    Like most people in so-called developed societies, the Price family had no idea how (...)
    Continue reading: Open Democracy: http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-6-129-2495.jsp
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