What a Waste

So far I've focused on different ways that we can produce clean energy while avoiding use of fossil fuels. To me, this is only part of the problem.

Think about this: you wake up the morning, turn on your lights in your room, shut off your alarm clock that has been ticking all night, walk into the shower (while probably leaving the lights on in your room), leave the shower (while probably forgetting to shut the lights off in the bathroom), then go into the kitchen to make some breakfast. It seems pretty warm in your kitchen, so you open the window and let heat and energy dump outside because unfortunately your landlord didn't give you climate control. Not to mention, he didn't care to put in better insulation in your apartment because he's cheap, even though it would have save him lots of money in energy costs in the long run.

You can easily tell what time it is as the displays on the coffee pot, stove, microwave and any other appliances have been up and running all night even though no one has been using them. You turn on the television to watch the morning news, but wait a minute...you didn't plug them in. This means these appliances, too, have been consuming energy all night even though no one wants to use them.

You then walk out the door, forgetting to shut all the lights off or turn down the heat, to head to the subway at 7am and see some city maintenance workers raking up every last leaf in the neighborhood and dumping them into the trash can. What did these leaves do to us? Why do we feel the need to throw them out, even though they are biodegradable? Anyways, you get to the subway station (assuming that you don't drive in your gasoline powered car to work) and, what do you know!...the escalator is running, and has been all night, even though no one is using it. And, of course, the lights in the station are on as well. Too bad no one thought to add a few more windows in the station, after all its 7am and the sun is brightly shining.

My point is, we live a very wasteful lifestyle in this country, and most other developed countries too. We can develop all the technology we want to try to produce clean power to avoid the effects of climate change, but that won't totaly solve the problem.

I think there are two fundamental things we need to do to deal with our waste issues:

1) BE LESS WASTEFUL! We need to start at the top and live less wasteful lifestyles. I'm not saying we need to go back to the stone age. We can definitely continue to live the way we do in a less wasteful manner, as long as we think about what we're doing and change our lazy and wasteful mentalities on a day to day basis. Why not walk to work or take public transit when you live only 2 miles away? Do you really need to drive there? Don't throw out those leaves in your yard. Design houses to be more efficient. Don't put on 2 sheets of wrapping paper on a sandwich at the local sub shop. Use less packaging and plastic when selling products. The list goes on and on.

2) SMART GRID. Why can't the electric grid supply energy to appliances only when we need to use them? Why does every single thing need to be plugged into our house and draining energy when we're probably not using them 90% of the time? You've probably seen the IBM ad's about developing a smart grid. This is a huge priority in my mind. First, it will allow us to be less wasteful. Second, it well be able to handle all of these alternative technologies we're developing in a much better way than our current grid does, which will likely bring down the costs associated with these technologies in the long run. Learn more about the Department of Energy's plans for a smart grid here.

It is a global problem, but America needs to lead the way.