I wrote to "Mr. Green" at the Sierra Club. He has an "Advice Column" and in Jan. wrote a piece encouraging us readers to curb our usage of air conditioning. Below is a letter that I sent to him last night:
I had wanted to write a response to your Jan issue about our AC addiction, but decided to let my anger subside before attempting to do so. While huge corporate buildings cool their numerous floors with A.C. I'm going to be sitting at home sweating it out? While we know that the more green vegetation there is, the cooler the city can be, our skyscraper rooftops are only lined with black lining, thus making our cities even hotter. And yet, as a suggestion, I should use AC as little as possible? I feel like we're attacking an ant hill one ant at a time. Let us encourage to turn our lights out, close off vents in rooms that aren't being used, and turn the AC off when we are out, but please don't make us don sack clothes while our corporate friends wear silk!
It was nice that Mr. Green was trying to come up with ways to help us conserve energy. Really, I do feel this way. Living near Washington D.C. I drive by huge homes and usually the very first thought I have is,
"I wonder what was there before." Because, it might have been a farm house with open fields. Or it could have been a forest before a developer came in and tore the 70 year old trees down and chased off the wildlife. My second thought is,
"Gosh, I wonder how much it costs to cool/heat that thing." The houses are huge! (My third thought is that I would need a road map to go through the house or I would get lost! And how lonely it must be). So Mr. Green was talking to big home owners. Or maybe small home owners. I know that there are big home owners that belong to the Sierra Club as well as the small. But wouldn't most of the readers who are reading Sierra know already that conservation is very important? Shouldn't Mr. Green be writing to Good Housekeeping and Maxiam instead to catch the rest of the world? Of course, there are two types of members in the Sierra club.
Ok, so there's probably more than two, but I'm going to start with the most obvious.
Type 1: Wow! This looks like a neat club and I'm interested in helping the earth, so I'll join and meet others who care and together we can help make a difference, one recycled can at a time.
That's me. We're interested in tips on conserving and helping the earth. John calls me a "granola girl" but really, I'm an insult to those people as I am far from being a Tree hugger...though I'm slowly improving.
Type 2: Wow!! This looks like a neat club that will make me look cool 'cuz then everyone will think that I'm hip.
This type could care less about doing anything for the earth unless someone is watching. I know someone like this type. X is a "Is anybody watching?? Then I'll clean the creek" kind of person. I am very disappointed in X. As long as X will get attention, X will do clean-up projects, drive "environmentally correct" cars, and strut about in clothes that are 100% safe for the earth. But when I suggested that X recycles, X didn't want to bother because it would be a tedious task.
Translation: Will anybody know? No, so don't bother. X reads this blog so I won't name any names, but I'm truly sadden that X doesn't want to take the extra step. The first time I got upset the day that I learned that X really didn't care about the earth, but cared about X's image...John reminded me that at least X is doing stuff to help, even if it is only when in the spotlight. But then X goes around shooting X's mouth off about how environmentally conscious X is and starts picking on other people, like people who drive SUVs.
Gee, I drive an SUV. I would listen to X "complain" (I would use the 'b' word but this is a clean blog) about SUV drivers and I knew that X knew I drove an SUV. With my SUV, I can drive to Montgomery Recycling center and turn in oil, old paint, brush, used metal, cardboard boxes and pick up free mulch for my garden. With my SUV, I can haul more stuff from the grocery and hardware store rather than having to make more trips. And with my SUV, I can go on a camping trip packing everything but the kitchen sink and hide in the wilderness for a week. Oh yeah, and when it's snowing, John can get to work before the streets are plowed. And finally, at Christmastime I can go pick a locally grown Christmas tree, cut it down, only spend gas (and yummy snacks!) on the trip, and support a local Maryland Farm such as Butler's Orchard rather than buy a dry tree that came from 3 states away on a huge gas hog tractor trailer. But did X think about?
So here's X moaning about SUV drivers ruining the world, then tosses X's aluminum can into the trash. The trash. X can't carry the soda can into X's car to take home to put in the recycling bin. X checks X's mail and dumps the junk mail into the trash. The trash! That's good paper that can be recycled. But as X climbs into X's less-gas consumption vehicle, X only thinks about what other people are thinking about X.
And I believe that's my point for Mr. Green and his idea that we should use as little AC as possible. Let's talk how we can make a difference in our homes, but let's not stop there. If we are going to sweat it out in the summer heat, so should the corporate offices! Another 20 story building is built without trees on the rooftop or solar energy. Conservation measures aren't put in place to ensure that the companies within are doing their best to take care of our earth. And every room in the building is heated all winter and cooled all summer 24 hours a day. I'd like to know the stats on how many houses would need to go without AC for how many days before it would be equivalent to the amount of Energy one skyscraper uses in one day. Now that's a math problem! When the Discovery Communications building was built in 2004 in downtown D.C. I had hoped to hear of its' conscious dedication to be "green." I guess I haven't been listening because I haven't heard anything yet. I would think that since the Discovery Channel is all about "...real-life nonfiction entertainment covering nature, science and technology, history, and world exploration..." the building would be awesomely green, meaning being highly cognitive of how they approached their site and made sure to utilize every energy-saving measure possible. If they did, then maybe other corporations and developers will follow in their footsteps, caring more about the environment.
And as for me, I will continue to live comfortably in the Maryland summers, circulating the air with fans as I keep the temperature cooler than hot and hotter than cold.
I mean, we humans struggled since the beginning of time to beat the heat. Now that we have the technology, I don't want to give it up. Rather than suggest that we give it up as Mr. Green states, I would suggest that we MAKE IT BETTER.
After all, we're the ones who invented AC in the first place.
One reader did respond with a nice letter that Mr. Green deemed worth posting on the website. I copied it and pasted it as I'm sure it will eventually disappear from the Sierra website.
The guy's name is David and he can be my friend anytime because he's a REALISTIC Tree Hugger. I especially like the part about the "skinny young" person who goes about the house nude. We have lots of windows that people can look in from the street and I don't think that Kevin our postman wants to see me nude.
Hey Mr. Green,
I've found that if you ask for something that even motivated people balk at doing, you get virtually no behavior change. [Keeping the air conditioning] at 78 degrees in a hot or humid climate is likely only to work for skinny young people who like to be nude or not wear very much.
Here's a set of alternatives that produce both comfort and savings:
- Create a cooling breeze at higher thermostat settings with electric fans--or, better yet, ceiling fans.
- You don't need to cool what didn't get hot to begin with. Homeowners should:
- Be sure they have good ceiling insulation--generally R-19 or better, depending on the area in which they live. [Editor's note: The R-value of insulation indicates its resistance to heat flow. To find the best insulation rating for your region, see the Department of Energy's insulation fact sheet.] If needed, also install two-way reflective heat barriers.
- Install good-quality double-pane windows with low-E glazing. Do the same to any glass doors. [Editor's note: Low-emittance (or low-E) coating is a thin, transparent, metal or metallic oxide layer that minimizes heat loss through the glass. For more information, visit energystar.gov or efficientwindows.org.
- Get photovoltaic panels installed. They produce peak electricity at the time of day when air conditioning is most heavily used.
- If your house is well insulated, you can get free cooling in many climates by opening your windows at night after the sun sets and closing them again first thing in the morning.
In much hotter places, you can set the air conditioning to 64 in the early morning, when demand and the outside temperature are both relatively low. Then reset to 75 or 78 during the day. If your house is well insulated, your system may not even come back on except for the hottest days, and you'll save a lot of money and electricity.
In short, there are ways to be comfortable in hot places and save electricity. --David
We should probably write to the Sierra Club and remind them that there are many public schools in Maryland...and other states...that still do not have air conditioning which makes it miserable for children to learn those last few months of school after winter ends...and thus, maybe in a domino affect, those children learn less=more built up frustration in higher grades=more dropouts.
Or maybe I'm stretching it a bit, but if we took away AC from our homes, our schools, and our businesses, it would definately change life the way we know it. I think the real answer would be to change how we fuel our AC units...if it's fossil fuels that is creating the electricity at the power plant, then maybe it really is the time to find an alternative and renewable energy source. That seems more pratical to me than sitting in a puddle of sweat.
Recently, my friend, Madeline (who doesn't slow down-just like me-to catch up via email) wrote in response to my Question: are we really interested in the every day lives of other people.
"Damn right we are. Why do you suppose the advent of social software (hel-lo? blogs?) has risen to such popularity? We are creatures who look to one another for everything from moral support to gauging (surreptitiously) our own failures and successes. We need one another in order for the network of society to remain intact, and we need to pay attention to what others do/feel/think in order to moderate and mediate our own actions, thoughts and feelings."
Just in case this comment was not read, I decided to repost it. I thought about it for awhile and then surfed the net, letting one blog lead me to another. I began thinking.
The creative thought: what if our society stopped talking, stopped reading, and just "blogged" about everything.
I shudder (literally) to think of our world becoming as such, especially after I read the various 'one-liner' blogs. It was very confusing...but then, as Madeline said, it's true that we use others as a measure.
...we use the models in reality TV as models of how NOT to act/think, right? But still, the close engagement of any individual with another, will (hopefully) result in reflection upon one's own situated-ness. Why do I think this way? Why do I react this way? What other options for opion/action do I have? etc."
Ah, yes. Even though I'm not in college right now, I can truly count on my friends for an education. As I looked upon the blogs with this new light, I realized that we truly are gifted...us bloggers and users of the internet. We can literally "read" other people's minds as they pick and scratch at each other (and the world around them). We can see their jealousy, their envy, their desires, their hatred. And maybe...just maybe, I can learn something.
Or feel empty. And question why our human race decided to stop advancing. Why is it that there are more t.v. watchers than there are scientists in the United States? Did we fall asleep in science class when evolution (the theory, hee..hee...) was taught? Did we miss the part in Social studies about how there are whole countries that are dying from AIDS? Were my fellow classmates snoozing in their drool when the teacher mentioned that THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES still exist and live in ignorance?
So while we blog and comment on Angelina Jolie's choice for her next kid or remark how we saw MaryKate Olsen's thong or how Britney Spears was missing an acrylic nail...there are children dying of AIDS or being born to parents who live in cardboard box houses. Am I wasting my time by blogging or is there something to learn from all of this?
Or, does it even matter?
I think that the reason I refused to totally grow up was I wanted to stay in innocence and be naive...and not know of just how insane and crazy our world is...how twisted it can be.
I really didn't want to know about all the horrible things. Dad, stop talking about all the negative stuff. It's bad enough that it's out there. Let me go hang out in the kid section at the library and read the fun kids book. I wanna take a craft class, a swim class, and make sand castles at the beach. I hate all the bad stuff.
It's not like when I was little and I could just hide under my blanket from the monsters. They are everywhere now. And what's everybody doing to fix our monsters? We've got monsters but there's not enough room to fit under my blanket anymore.
So blogs are good. It gives me insight into the lives of other people.
And sometimes, blogs make me question.