I listened to the following talk, featuring Professor Kevin Anderson, who I have mentioned many times here before:

While I continue to be hugely supportive of distributed PV as an energetic and democratic solution, as inspired by John Farrell at ILSR, there is something to be said, in my thinking, for migrating a version of electrical energy efficiency to the CO₂ realm. What does that mean?

What it means is choosing to not use a kWh of electrical energy, or a kJ (kiloJoule) when one could. It also means being sensitive to energy intensity. Sure, if I drive to the store up the street, or I walk to the store up the street, the point is that I get me from here to there and back. But the overhead and speed of using the automobile, in contrast with walking or using a bicycle or taking the electrical streetcar that runs down the route is so much higher than do any of those, is something where I, as a responsible member of a climate sensitive society, need to properly evaluate the value of my personal time against polluting The Commons.

Unfortunately, the technological Zeitgeist is to fix all these problems by slathering on additional techno-fixes, and justifying them with techno-casuistry so the lifestyles are preserved. I’m suggesting that a full systems analysis suggests little beats simply choosing to slow down and not use the energy to save time or feed a personal impatience to begin with.

This is worth a look at, both for practical and personal reasons. I, for instance, as a matter of personal discipline, always cross walks at corners now only when the urban lightings permit me to do so.