Doug,
What I think you and many others forget is that people have greater concerns facing them than watching the wattage on their light bulbs.
Employment issues, income and expense issues, marital problems, problems with their kids, costs to educate, health issues, health costs, etc. etc..
All of these very real issues that people face every day demote environmental issues to low man on the totem pole.
It makes sense to be environmentally aware, but, "The Sky is Falling" mantra that we hear too often, is both extreme and far removed from the pressing problems of everyday life.
In addition, you seem to forget about "NIMBY".
Often a reasonable project gets shot down for no other reason than "NIMBY"
And, that includes pro-environmental folks too
Maybe Three Mile Island and/or the movie, "China Syndrome" contributed to that mindset, but, it's a very real impediment to energy saving installations, be they windmill farms or nuclear power plants.
And, what remains unquantified, is the degree to which man influences the GW process.
I like to recycle, I advocated recycling at clubs where I was a board member. I tried energy saving light bulbs and found out that many were defective and those that worked didn't throw off enough light for my impaired eyes. I thought smaller cars would be great until a woman on a cell phone driving at 50+mph hit me while I was waiting to make a left turn. The police tell me that my life was spared because I was in a big car. Advocates of smaller, energy saving cars should be forced to car pool with their kids friends before making any purchase. Again, life and life experiences influence the degree in which people respond to issues, environmental and otherwise.
What may concern you, may be of no concern to your neighbor and vice versa.
I think problems begin when one faction attempts to dictate a life style for other factions.
In the ultimate, whether you like it or not, the "pocketbook" is the great motivator.
If the incremental cost is negligible, people won't react or respond and environmental issues, to many people, are de minimis, today.
My point is, that most people don't place a high priority on environmental issues because they have so many, more immediate, issues to deal with and the environmental issues don't impact their pocketbook in a meaningful way.
If we could bury all of the used fisionable material that's a byproduct of nuclear reactors, safely on Mars, do you think we'd follow the French National energy policy and reduce our dependency on foreign oil ?