"Going Green, How Serious are you about it?"

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."