TESTING CORE VALUES OF HUMANITY

Post-publishing review on the paper “Exploring societal preferences for energy sufficiency measures in Switzerland” (Moser C, Rösch A and Stauffacher M, 2015, Front. Energy Res. 3:40, DOI: 10.3389/fenrg.2015.00040)

The goal of this paper is to identify societal preferences in Switzerland concerning different energy-related behaviors in order to reveal barriers and opportunities related to the promotion of energy sufficiency, to analyze what people think about energy sufficiency in different domains of life and to which energy-sufficient behaviors they can relate. Behaviors are evaluated together as lifestyles, which are characterized by certain behavior patterns in different domains (everyday mobility, holiday travel, housing, food consumption).

Based on the data from the analysis, the following energy-sufficiency-related domains and behaviors are suggested when people evaluating different lifestyles: distance to workplace and meat consumption. Research has shown that people weigh domains differently when making choices about their preferred lifestyles, indicating that they make different trade-offs between these domains.

Is found what energy-sufficient lifestyles are characterized by short commuting distances, using bikes and public transport for commuting. This is likely because shorter commuting distances provide significant benefits to individuals in the sense that shorter commutes give employees more leisure time. Similarly, results suggest a preference for biking to work. This preference may also relate to individual benefits, since “active commuting” (i.e., biking to work) is positively related to physical well-being. Lifestyles characterized by a strictly vegetarian diet and reduced living spaces per person were the least preferred ones.

Here, in my opinion, we may see the evidential realization of core human values, inherited from our ancestors of stone age: preferably meat diet, and ability to be lazy to sleep more in case of ability to reach workplace in short time and ability to be independent in decisions: to move to workplace by own means (bike, by walking). As we are mostly meat-eating creatures the first value is mostly difficult to overcome, whereas the second value (independence in travel decisions) is the case of trade-off in our modern world in diversity of transport infrastructure.

There is another domain, discussed in the article – living space and air temperature in living room. People, as expected, prefer free living space but they understand what they are able to select clothes to make thermal comfort instead of using heating systems. Because external heating is monetized process the easiest way to stimulate decrease of consumption is increases tariffs, as we are in most cases rational creatures (we inherit this also from our ancestors).

It is interesting to mention what one option would be to complement a limited amount of personal space with shared spaces (e.g., shared guest rooms, workshops, office spaces, and common rooms). Such shared rooms offer benefits on several different levels: (i) in total, less space needs to be heated, lighted, etc., thus reducing energy consumption; (ii) people can profit from shared infrastructure; and (iii) shared rooms address people’s need to connect with other people, in that they offer opportunities to meet, exchange, and learn from each other.

We are all from communal caves and communities. It is understandable way of living for us and way of decreasing expenses for heating and so on.

So, this article takes us to core human values which are the subject of interaction with and influence of to improve energy efficient lifestyle.