[OT] Saving the planet is quiet work.

[d20Dwarf]

It's nowhere near that simple. Think about this for a second - In the US, everyone's been educated, told that smoking is bad for you in a variety of ways. Yet tobacco is still a billion dollar industry. If education alone were the key, nobody in the US would smoke. Just telling people it's bad is obviously insufficient to change their behavior, even when the benefits ot the individual are obvious.

There's ignorance, cultural mores, and a number of other practical matters all wrapped together. When the benefits ot the individual are not obvious, it becomes rather difficult to change everyone's mind. Put national prejudices on top of that, and the problem becomes nearly intractable.

To use your example, I think smoking perfectly illustrates my point. We used to believe smoking was harmless, then we finally realized that it wasn't (or admitted it to ourselves). Ad campaigns, warning labels, and negative social pressure ensued. As a result, the number of smokers in the U.S. has declined over the last 30 years in significant numbers. I'm citing Princeton research that tracked smoking in the U.S. and Europe from the mid-60s to late 80s.

So, I think education is definitely the right first step, and a very important one.