The Oil Drum

I like your smoking analogy, since the ongoing description of our energy use as an 'addiction' is hard to refute, even if it's technically a little different. (Even calling it a "Chemical Addiction" is pretty near the mark.)

Anyway, as addictions go, I think that changing the habitual and monotonous use of such a substance, be it say Petroleum, Alcohol (in either form) or Tobacco is to me, akin to separating molecules that are in compound.  You can apply energy to break that molecular bond, but until you give the addict something else to replace it with, and I mean having it close at hand and readily resupplied, then the original compound is all too likely to reform.  Maybe I'm being too esoteric..

When I decided to really get out of the 'Soda' habit, over a few different tries, I saw that it wasn't about just pulling the Coke away, but putting something there in it's place, so that the empty spot wouldn't just be filled by another Coke, the way dirt was magically drawn to Pigpen in the Peanuts..

I talk about energy, to coworkers, to my family, friends, neighbors, and try different approaches in different contexts.  To the guys on my Video crew (ESPN Poker, Vegas).. I hop into the car with them as we trundle over to one Hyper AC'd hotel from our own (Very green, very green.. but my room is set at 72, and I didn't get the offered rent-a-car, but carpool with one of them each day.. Vegas busses are ok, too.), and say cheerfully, "Did I tell you that we're F'd?"  They know I'm joking, and they know I'm not, as I bring up the Oil situation again, but in a somewhat light tone.  They know that Ethanol is ~probably~ untenable, and that we're ~probably~ heading for the waterfall, and that we ~ought~ to be doing something about it.. and they want to, but I think they all "Already have a hobby"..  that's Bob's Hobby, the 'Energy' thing..

I've told neighbors about my 'intention' to get alternatives up on my roof, but I don't think that is anywhere NEAR as effective as it will be to have them see it up there.  (This Summer, after Vegas, I swear)  Actions speak louder than words, and neighbors can be acutely aware of each others' advantages and their quirks.. could take 'Talking about the Weather' to a whole new level, eh?

Anyway, I think seeing it happening in your own neighborhood, at your own office in ways that you can stop someone and ask about it will be a signifigant way of making it 'real' to people who only see it as an occasional News Item, and are just too stretched to take it to the next level themselves. It puts the other elements into the pan, so that the 'free-radicals' have something appropriate and new to bond onto, instead of going back to the prior 'solutions'..

People will almost always choose something that offers short term individual pleasure even if it risks long term individual pain. Despite our individual abilities to plan for the long term. This differs across issues, but IMHO we are still very much creatures of the moment.

Exactly, and infortunately it is not going to change any time soon because it is somewhat "hardwired" in the brain.

See Breakdown of Will from George Ainslie.
Also of interest A Selectionist Model of the Ego: Implications of Self-Control and Emotion as a Motivated Behavior (same page).
As a quick summary, we are not rational creatures, we are not "in control" and even we try to this brings so serious drawbacks that one has to wonder which option is worse.

How do we fix the mess then?

"People will almost always choose something that offers short term individual pleasure even if it risks long term individual pain. Despite our individual abilities to plan for the long term."

One thing I have observed, though, is that when people are pessimistic or depressed they are even more short-term oriented.