How statistics provide an unlimited supply of press releases in a zero-carbon world

In their book 'Made to Stick', the Heath brothers introduce an example in which an American health institute finds that 'one bag of popcorn contains 37 grams of saturated fat'. To communicate this story, they develop a message 'one bag of popcorn is equivalent to a full day of unhealthy eating'. Another message that the institute might have said is 'a bag of popcorn contains as much Vitamin J as 71 pounds of broccoli', a declaration which is as meaningful as it is correct.

Viewing these statements from a distance, now let's now reconsider popular messages in the energy industry, for example about renewable energy, zero-energy houses or carbon neutrality:

• A 1.5MW wind turbine generates electricity for a 1000 families (meaning the electricity produced over a year equals the electricity consumption of 1000 average homes)
• A 'carbon-neutral' conference handed out compact fluorescent lamps to its participants. The 250 kg of CO2 that the lamp will save over its lifetime offsets the emissions for travelling to the conference
• A zero-energy home generates as much electricity over a year as it consumes

We can easily see that we'll have to live with these kinds of messages for a while, and that lots of creative communications can be developed.