Social Marketing as a Means to Influence Student Behavior Towards Energy Conservation

• Main Authors: Sarah E. Ball, Sarah Ball
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Greenland; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.608.8681; http://www.aashe.org/files/resources/student-research/2009/Ball2008.pdf

Global warming has become a “hot topic ” over the past few years, entering into politics, the media, and classrooms around the world. Many people have seen Al Gore’s documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth, ” which shows that the melting of the Greenland ice sheet could shut down the thermohaline circulation in the Atlantic Ocean, effectively causing an ice age in Europe while the rest of the planet continues to get hotter. Not only would the onset of an ice age destroy much of the plant and animal life, it would also cause an economic loss of over 40% of Europe’s GDP (Cline, 2004). Greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, are believed to be the main cause of global warming. Burning natural gas, fuel oil, coal, and propane, as well as using electricity, account for 21 % of total carbon dioxide emissions. There have been and still are many attempts to dampen the effects of carbon dioxide emissions, such as the gas-guzzler tax and tax credits for conservation. The gas-guzzler tax applies to the sales of vehicles with official EPA-estimated gas mileage below 22.5 miles per gallon based on a 55%/45 % highway/city usage. However, this tax was only applied to cars weighing less than 6,000 pounds which lead to the increased popularity in SUVs and other large passenger cars (Excise Tax for 2007). Another example is the use of tax credits for private