Green fatigue. We haz it.

The short version is that people care about the planet but are dog sick of hearing about it all the time.

A Reader's Digest survey of 1500 Australians has found that we are in danger of zoning out from messages to live a green lifestyle and are rebelling against the notion of carrying all the problems on their shoulders.

"We know global warming is a problem," the survey report says.

Ah. Let me just stop you there. You 'know' in the same way that billions of religious people 'know' their god is best - and that's official now, by the way. Even Stephen Schneider, one of warble gloaming's long term proponents (so long term that it was still global cooling back when he started), conceded that it would fail a beyond reasonable doubt test. So for 'know' read 'believe', or possibly 'would like to think is true' for some weird fucked up reason.

"But incessantly reminding us that we'll ruin a perfectly good planet if we don't half-flush, ride to work and recycle - and guess what - there's a real danger we'll just zone out."

I'd go further than that. Once politicians - a group not known for the way honesty comes naturally - jump on the band wagon not only does credibility suffer but in order to grub more votes they won't fucking shut up about it. That adds to the incessant reminders that are 'zoning us out'.

Despite living in one of the driest environments in the world the survey found just 31 per cent of respondents feel bad about showering for more than four minutes and 85 per cent regularly take long showers.

Men are 50 per cent more likely not to care about letting the tap run while brushing their teeth.

Okay, that's slightly surprising given the water shortage and the fact that everyone's on meters here. You let taps run and you'll feel it on the bill a few weeks later. Sure, the water shortage has been blamed on bad management and increased demand as much as warble gloaming, and I haven't looked into it enough to make my mind up, but the bottom line is whatever the reason water bills here aren't going down anytime soon. Never mind the planet, my wallet can't take a running tap or baths instead of showers.

It found 94 per cent of Australians accept plastic bags and while 98 per cent say they are doing their bit for the planet, only three per cent describe their everyday behaviour as "totally committed".

It appears that while the green messages are getting through, many people cannot give up some of their comforts.

"15 per cent feel guilty using all the hotel towels, but do it anyway, 20 per cent feel guilty using full-flush instead of half-flush, 22 per cent regrets tossing their rubbish into the wrong bins, 19 per cent feel guilty leaving lights on when they're out."

In other words while the brainwashing has taken enough to produce guilt pangs there's a bit of resistance to giving up on modern life.

Who could possibly have seen that coming?