Many DK diaries look to inspire us to take major steps to saving the world by such big steps as impeaching Bush/Cheney, bringing down WalMart, defeating Repuke candidates in upcoming elections, trying to save the environment (fitting for Earth Day), stopping an impending attack on Iran, and such like. This is no such thing, not in the least, and will probably not change anyone's behavior at all (which, at heart, is what we want when we write diaries on DK, so I think). Rather, it's an examination of some little things that we do every day that collectively impact the planet, with regard to energy and resource consumption, which is by default something that we all do. I am not Jerome a Paris (nor was meant to be), as I am profoundly unqualified to deal with global energy policy. Rather, we examine one individual's behavior, in this case mine.
It's a crude generalization, though maybe not too crude, to state that too many of us don't give a thought to every little detail of energy use in daily lives, in driving a car, heating the home, working at a computer, etc., except when seeing prices at the gas pump or paying the utility bills each month. I'm probably the exact opposite, and it wouldn't be too far to call me a walking parody of "liberal guilt" when it comes to energy use. Some examples of my daily energy consumption behavior will illustrate (probably also that I need to go into therapy). (Qualifier: this is an outlier case, because I'm single with no dependents.)
1. Home heating: I set at a max of 64 deg F in the winter. When I leave for work, I turn it down to about 55 deg F.
2. A/C: I usually set it around 77-78 deg F in the summer.
3. Showering: rather than turning on the hot water and letting cold water run down the drain before showering, I wash the dishes to the point where the water is warmed up, and then shower. (Yes, I wash dishes with cold water. I learned this trick from, of all people, my Republican parents.)
4. Computer printouts: when I have to do research at the local university and have to print out stuff, I noticed that they've installed printers that automatically print on both sides of the paper. At work, we don't have such printers. Now, when I print out some documents and it's just a copy for me, I've started to print on both sides. The only way to do this, of course, is that to print the odd pages first, then walk back to the printer, flip and shuffle the pages, and print the even pages on the other sides of the first printout. (In addition, there's a pile of scrap paper near the computer that's left for people to reuse.)
5. Grocery shopping: I've been using canvas bags to carry groceries for a little over 10 years now, and some of them eally show it.
6. Going out after work on Friday night: a lot of stuff that I catch on the weekends is closer to work than to home. So I bring extra food, have dinner at work, then go out.
7. Driving over 55 mph: unless I'm running late, even with no traffic (especially with no traffic) on the highway, I try as much as possible to go no faster than 55 mph. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that someone did the calculations and determined that 55 mph was actually the optimum car speed to balance speed, wind resistance, and fuel efficiency (hence the national speed limit until not all that long ago).
Really anal-retentive, right? But we can all stop and ponder the little energy-consuming things that we all do every day, often without giving them a second thought. The lights that are left on in rooms that aren't being used, the computers running all the time, the aluminum cans and glass bottles that get tossed in the trash. I worked in the recycling group in college, and it was an experience to take all the cans, glass, and paper to the recycling centers (yeah, yeah, we had to drive a van and burn gas to get there). Even at a friend's recent going-away party, I had enough presence of mind (i.e. I wasn't that plotched) to ask if I could take the empty bottles to the recycling station. It wound up being about 3 trash bags full.
Cutting back wasteful consumption can collectively make a huge impact. Americans tend to do things like car pooling or taking public transport more often when gas prices spike, rather incorporating them as everyday habits. (If you want to try to work on any Bible-thumping Pharisees (I don't use the word "Christian" with such people) that you meet, the parable of the seven good years and the seven lean years might help out.) It would be truly conservative, in the best sense of that word, to use energy resources wisely and only when needed, and not try quick fix, cold-turkey economizing in a panic situation that wears off with time.
Recently, I discovered Leo Hickman's regular feature in The Guardian on ethical living, where he regularly addresses small everyday things that seem trivial on the surface, but in fact require devotion of considerable resources to actually pull off. These include:
- barbecues
- diapers (for the many child-caring among you)
- shaving
- going to the gym
- paper towels vs. hand dryers
- buying new cars vs. used cars
He also tackles "bigger" questions, like gas (sorry, petrol) prices, as have many here at DK, but I tried to pick his more "Seinfeldian" topics as examples here.
In the end, perhaps this amounts nothing more than adopting a more "just say no to overconsumption" attitude, but we all know how "just say no" worked in its more (in)famous association. And it can seem futile, especially given the mass corporate consumption that you see in any big city. I was in NYC not that long ago, and walking back to my room late at night in Manhattan, I saw all the big displays near Times Square and Seventh Avenue, corporate advertisements brightly lighting the night, and to me quite pointlessly, not just their conspicuous consumption, but how minor my own frugality is by comparison. It probably wouldn't be hard to cut down on such use even just 5% without inconveniencing ourselves, to pull a number out of thin air.
I suppose this is nothing more than a Thoreau-like call to "simplify, simplify", i.e. to be more conscientious about how we all consume energy, and how cutting back on wasting resources that we all consume to survive is probably the single biggest thing we can do as individuals in our daily lives for "homeland security". We all unavoidably consume resources in some form or other in order to live. The question comes as to how we consume, profligately or wisely, in blissful, destructive ignorance or wiser, more self-conscious awareness.
So, a diary not about much, but these are things that we as individuals totally control and thus can impact immediately, especially when the collective effect gets added up. (Sort of like voting in Dems and voting out Repukes in November.)