You see others wasting electricity, so you think it reasonable for you to waste as much electricity as you like.
I don’t waste electricity. I use what I need, no more, no less. I consume less than 10KwH a day. I would be surprised if, on average across the year, 1KwH of that was for lighting. So my cutting that consumption by 90% (actually impractical because many of the lights I have are not suitable for LED bulbs, but let’s assume I can overcome that) means I might, just might save around 300KwH a year. My local retail park uses almost 20 times that amount PER DAY to heat the street. The fact that they pass those costs on to their customers is as strong an argument as you suggesting that I think it’s OK to waste electricity because I see others doing so. If the issue is emissions then it doesn’t matter who is paying for the energy. I thought the strategy was to get consumers (including businesses) to use less.
//Maybe we could have energy efficiency rating for shops like we do for machines. You could then choose which places to buy from.//
No thanks. I rarely use shops and have enough trouble finding a suitable outlet without worrying about that nonsense. I don’t actually care what they do, how much energy they consume or how much it costs them or their customers. I am citing them as an example of the blatant hypocrisy that surrounds this issue. It’s as easy as pie to legislate to stop shops heating the street. Local Authorities would revel in the challenge of enforcing the legislation and would set up a new department headed by a “Cabinet Member for the prevention of street heating” and they’d love it. One thing LA’s excel in (and just about the only thing they excel in) is enforcing oppressive petty legislation.
//The idea that 'to do something to help the planet is futile because you're not doing everything you possibly can to help the planet' or 'because someone isn't doing everything they possible can to help the planet so why should I?' is really juvenile.//
That’s not my argument at all. My argument is that there are far better gains to be made without tinkering about with petty measures (such as turning off streetlights) that will make no appreciable difference. Your analogy with the corn thief is puerile. Also, as I mentioned, these measures are not “to help the planet”. The planet needs no help. It will continue to exist whether humans are on it or not. These measures are to make life comfortable for humans.