Secondary motivation can be powerful
Standing behind the main motivation for a cause can be a great thing, but many times there is a secondary motivation that can be just as effective for some people.
In her book “Unsubscribe“, author Jocelyn Glei puts it like this:
“In other words, if you’re not motivated to be nice because of the good karma, be motivated to be nice because ultimately it saves time”
I see a similar situation with climate change. You may or may not be concerned about it directly, but the side effects of fighting are things we should all support, like cleaner air and more sustainable products.
For example, California has banned gas-powered leaf blowers, which is a great thing. There’s a cost involved to get started, of course, but ultimately they are better for the environment (primary), but they’re much quieter and don’t stink up the neighborhood (secondary).
I personally have an electric mower and blower, and they’re fantastic. Easy to start, no need to buy gas, and they’re amazingly quiet. You can throw in the environmental benefits too, but the secondary motivation behind using things like that can be enough for most of us.
We reside in a suburban area and can attest to the noise that the leaf mowers bring, often several at the same time across nearby lots. While my mower is still a gas-power Honda ( 20 years old) when it dies I will certainly replace it with electric. My pole-chain saw for limb cutting, my weed-waker and my hedge trimmer have been 24 or 48 volt units for some time. Next up is indeed the leaf blower... But I hesitate to think I can replace my primary tree-cutting chain saw with an electric one.
While the battery-powered convenience is certainly a benefit of going electric, my primary motivation has been because today’s ethanol-laced (read “water with a bit of corn in it” ) constantly foul up carburetors that ‘"sit” and deteriorate gaskets. My short term solution to that is to use 5 gallon tins of 2-cycle prepared non-ethanol gasoline. But it is expensive...