Em-powerment

In an opinion piece on sustainable energy Alan Knight claims that if people get involved in small-scale energy generation projects it shifts their overall attitudes to sustainability. Seems logical to me. At the moment we are bombarded with reports and warnings about dwindling energy supplies and global warming which create a sense of helplessness. Getting directly involved takes people the first few steps up the mountain and creates a sense of agency rather than helplessness. It's hard to motivate people to take action when they have no sense of the impact of that action.