The hard nut to crack is the one of getting people to "sacrifice" now so that people in the future will be better off.

There is no current mechanism that rewards those conserving in the present. Depending on altruism is a weak straw to grasp, there are many who think altruism doesn't even exist. (That is what appears to be altruism also provides a reward to the person making the sacrifice - even if it is only psychological.)

I think this realization is why most politicians who favor conservation promote the anticipated rewards of more profitability and business opportunities for green firms. This is still an appeal to growth not to consumption restraint.

People in the past have been asked by their leaders to make enormous sacrifices (think Londoners during the blitz, or the Great Leap Forward) because they were told that the sacrifices were necessary and noble. We have no such leadership currently.

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape