I'll say it does take SOME energy to be more energy aware and efficient. No good endeavor is without effort. But it doesn't have to be money or big-ticket. Just always thinking about how every car trip you take, every lightbulb left on for an extra minute, can be cut down and is a chance to save. Turning off a power strip will make you get up from the TV but will save some energy, but also gets you off your butt.
Continuing education and efforts to inform your neighbor need to keep going!

It's surveys like this that make me want to curl up and die.

Of course global warming is going to continue al long as people are too lazy/greedy/ignorant to even minimally change their lifestyles. It's not even a dramatic change. Keep your lights off more; don't pump up the AC so often; recycle; don't use electrical appliances every minute of every day. How is this too hard? How can people be so thick headed?

We always talk about the no-turning point in global warming, but I think humans have already reached our no-turning point. We've become so consumed with technology and the artificial that we have lost our basic connection with nature. I'm certainly not opposed to technology, but once we lose our relationship with the earth, we're doomed.

People get discouraged if they feel they have to change everything at once. If change is presented gradually it becomes less of a "hassle" and one is more likely to stick with it. We have to change our habits and if we try to do it all at once it just isn't going to stick, like any new years resolution, if we jump into it too hard we're less likely to keep it.

I've been trying to reduce my impact with a bunch of small steps , I was brought up recycling but then I stopped buying toxic products, consider the environmental impact of all my purchases (including food) and try to lead by example and sharing knowledge not by shoving things down peoples throats. I still have a long way to go but all my steps have been successful so far.

It's important to have information available and when people realize what the true cost of everything is, including the environmental, social & the future impact on their children, they'll want to change. What parent, after becoming aware of the difference between organic and conventional baby food will choose the latter?

What i most depressing about being green is seeing all the blatant abusers out there. For every bag of grains i buy, someone buys a 20oz ribeye steak. Every time i ride my bicycle, there are shiny new hummers on the road. I turn off the light when i leave the room, but office towers stay illuminated 24/7.

It's frustrating and demoralizing to be surrounded by idiots who counteract everything your do.

why don't people get it?

Studies like this are prove my point - we need to make laws or regulations to almost force people to do something they know they should be doing. We (the human race) are just plain lazy, especially when it comes to something that seems to much out of our hands. I'll admit, I don't do nearly as much as I could and should be doing and its mostley out of pure laziness. By the time I finish with work everyday, take care of my house, walk the dogs, make dinner, feed the baby, wash the clothes...etc... I'm exhausted. I agree that we all just need to start small, be that by recycling more, driving less, or becoming more informed consumers, however, something more needs to be done to make people (inluding myself) stick with these tasks and keep including more into their everyday routine. I'm not quite sure how to do that...anyone have a suggestion?

I think you have to be patient-- step by step, change is happening. Corporations are seeing the value in going green, and more people than ever before are changing lightbulbs and switching to public transit. Here's the blog of a National Geographic editor who's got his family and neighbors to do an experiment for a month to see how much they can reduce their energy use.:
http://ngm.typepad.com/carbon_diet/

Although surveys like this can be used to prove anything, I think this one has got it right. It's certainly my experience that people are too lazy to be green. Even if that's just getting up to put paper in the recycling box rather than the bin next to your desk - some people just don't want to do it.

However i don't think that should stop anyone else from doing it. If you try that's one less person damaging the planet and if all the readers here think like that then it's a start and we can spread the word.

It is pretty sad that so many people would rather sit in front of their tv, leave every light in the house on, have the ac set at 64 degrees and think that they dont need to change, someone else will take care of it for them.
And alot of people get angry if you ask them to put something in a recycling bin, turn the lights off, turn their ac up a few degrees. It is truely shocking how pissy people become over this issue, as if they are so inconvienced now but what you ask them to do.
I completely agree that governments around the world need to play a more proactive role in the environment, and if it means passing some laws that will force people to stick to little basics, or face heafty fines, then so be it. I would love to see someone have to pay a simple $1 for every coke can or beer bottle that makes it into their trash, I know a lot of people who are just that stuborn, will look at a trash can and a recycle bin, side by side, and put items in the trash. We're talking beer bottles, soda cans, water bottles, things that are obviously can be recycled. And I would love to see their face when they got a bill from the city fining them for it. Usually these are the same people that complain the most about having to pay for anything also, so I think it would have some sort of impact!

@Brian:
There are things you can do throughout the day. Don't think of being more green as 'another thing to do', or something to do at the end of the day. Do the simple things all the time during the day... turn off lights quickly and turn off lights in unused offices at work; turn off the water while you brush or take a shorter shower; keep doors closed when AC is on, turn AC temp up to 78 not 72. Things like this are ongoing everyday but can make the real difference as you use less.
An example of higher-effort things: Find some friends at work to carpool with, all you have to do is ask where folks live or find co-workers you don't know well but meet them and talk about pooling. If you can recycle magazines (but curbside doesn't take it) get some big office paper boxes and put the magazines and junk mail in it, find a local recycling place to take it all, maybe once a month.