Bryan Boutz is about as sincere and dedicated a person as I have ever met. Thus when he responded to my last blog, I had to give thought to what he said.
There is a lot of talk about going green which is politically correct language for being more careful about how we use energy. With all of the hype about "going green" I wonder if people really have any idea what they are talking about.
I have purchased the lightbulbs that require about 1/3 the amount of electricity for the same amount of light. But in my home we have ten times as many bulbs burning as my parents had in 1950. My parents were definitely far more green than I ever will be.
To heat our home here in arctic Kansas we have a main system using natural gas, a secondary system using wood, and a tertiary system using electricity. Around $200.00 a month is spent on heating and electricity. Most of the heat is for warmth and a small portion for hot water. How much of that am I willing to give up? My home in Leadville, Colorado had a coal/wood range that both heated and provided an oven and a surface for cooking. No one can bake bread quite the quality my mother made in that range's oven. Electrical use was for a refrigerator and two tube-type radios. When I compare the number of items that operate on electricity in my present home I am appalled in comparison to my folks' home. I can assure you that we are not really willing to give up any of those items.
Finally, look at the cars we drive. Most homes have at least two and they are major contributors to the use of energy in America. The Arab world is enjoying our gluttony and socking it to us for fuel to run them. We complain about the high prices of petrol, but I don't see anyone seriously cutting back. I read about the new Hummer which gets 4 mpg in the city, 10 on the highway. Do Hummer owners really care about being green? Other people want cars that will do 100+ mph. How serious are they about going green?
Bottom line. We don't want to go back to the "good old days." We have no plans to go back to the good old days. We are not about to give up the energy consuming lifestyle we lead. So when people talk to me about going green, I would like to see them walking to the store, riding bicycles, and cutting back on the horde of appliances they have in their homes. Changing lightbulbs is like putting a band-aid on a bleeding artery.
In America we are gluttons in many categories, but none is greater than our gluttony for energy. As some poet has said, "Someday you have to pay the piper."
THE BIG LIE
2 years ago
2 comments:
As another energy glutton, I say "Well said!"
We have quite a puzzle to solve.
Thanks for writing about the subject. Hopefully it makes someone think about it.
Maybe we have to figure out exactly which puzzle we need to solve before we set about solving it. My concerns with the whole "climate change" situation are that we don't know the causes, we don't know the results, and we don't know how much (or even if) human activities contribute to the situation. Nor, for that matter, how much humans can do to reverse the trend.
We really only have accurate, global temperature records for the past 52 years or so. In that short time, we have observed cycles, but how many longer cycles are there out there that we haven't even noticed? Could it be that this is a temporary situation, naturally occurring, and soon to reverse? In fact, some scientists are saying that the warming has plateaued. Has it reached the top? Will it start back down?
Again this morning we see news about the "positive" side of a warmer world. In addition to longer growing seasons and therefore more food, a new study in England says that fewer people will die from cold winters. It is true that more will die from hot summers, but the report says that the total deaths will be far lower. Of course, having more people alive, and being able to grow more food for them means that there will be more people driving cars, using electricity and exhaling carbon dioxide than ever before.
By the way, you can read the story I mentioned at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7240463.stm
May I also suggest some of my blog entries on the subject?
http://wortheverydollar.blogspot.com/2007/10/major-meterologist-on-global-warming.html
http://wortheverydollar.blogspot.com/2007/09/san-franciscans-and-water.html
http://wortheverydollar.blogspot.com/2007/09/water-bottles.html
As you can tell, bottled water is one of my "hot buttons". I am an environmentalist, to a point. I look around the (galactic) neighborhood, and I don't see any place else to live, so we must take good care of this planet. But I also know that many of the demands made by the shrillest climate-change activists are economically suicidal. Some have even suggested literal suicide!
I believe in the resilience of the Earth. I'm skeptical of any suggestion that we humans can seriously have any significant, long-term effects on things like climate.
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