Electrical power can be a true mystery. Where does that power you are using right now actually come from? If you don’t generate it yourself, its’ hard to know if it is coal, nuclear, geothermal, wind, natural gas… Were all so tied into the grid, and yet what’s the origin, what’s “the source” as Neo might ask. One tool you can use comes fromwww.ilovemountains.org Just your average run of the mill activists getting the word out, and in this case its about the power your PC is using to read this. If you click on the link, you can enter your zip code and they can show you if any coal is used to power your home (Probably, we are in North America); where that coal is coming from, and a little about the environmental damage that is done to get it; in the case of coal typically small things, like blowing mountain tops clean off to gouge the coal straight out of the earth.
You know, little stuff.
So if you still have an incandescent light bulb in your house, honestly, at this point, what the “F” is wrong with you?
It always strikes me how dissassociated our homes can be from the environemental damage done to feed them with power, water and building material. If you have ben to this site before you probably know that water consumption is a serious topic with me. I honestly do not care if it is a gallon or an acre foot, it is all on you, me, all of us, to really address our run away use of water. A typical 3rd world citizen uses 3 gallons of water a day. You flush that much every time you use the toilet. And it is not just some “person” living in Africa, Latin America, Asia or wherever that sees the effects of water shortages, though their effects are more profound. California Schinook Salmon Runs Suspended Againread the headline for yesterday’s paper. There is a direct line from the decline of our fisheries to your tap. I do not have a website like Ilovemountians for our fisheries, but maybe one of you will make one. We need to be real about our water use, because as population increases, and water supplies remain, at best, constant, something has to give. And that something must, must be consumption.
Good piece in the Chronicle today about water and the current drought / shortage. I have to admit the water situation in the state, as well as global, is pretty bleak. Even if we were to get “normal” rainfall, what does normal really mean when we are surrounded by growth? Growing population, growing industrial needs, aging infrastructure. Normal or average water becomes totally irrelevant if your demands on the resource continue to increase. And it isn’t enough to just do more. Maybe you installed a low flush toilet. Maybe you have a front loading High Efficiency washing machine. Maybe you have a drought resistant landscape. I congratulate you, you made important changes.
Do more.
I am sorry, but it is not enough. I was struck by a post on the boards by a citizen who had listed all the conservation steps they had taken, and was complaining that they were being punished now because they could not reduce their use further. I understand that frustration, but if you have cut as much as you can from your own household, then your next step is to make your friends, your family and your neighbor cut back their use too. Sustainably can start as an individual effort, but it sure can’t stay that way. I hate to get all hippie dippy but if it is not a communal effort, forget it. San Francisco has one of the lowest per capita water use levels in the state. Great. Now we need to get Daly City, Oakland & Sausalito there as well. And we can do more. I know for a fact that I waste water. I can upgrade my house, my properties, and my lifestyle to live more sustainably. And if a nut job like me can do more, imagine how many gallons I could save if I got, for example, my lazy brother to do something? If increased conservation effort does not mirror increases in demand due to population and industrial growth, we will loose.
I am very much in a graywater mood atm…there are so many freaking smart people out there doing cool things that we can all do to save water, save money, save or future….really its just a question of lighting fires under our collective asses and getting to work. Here is one fookin interesting idea from Brac Systems for a home graywater system that seems to be a straightforward, low maintenance approach to leveraging your existing water use with conservation. Me likey!
Gray water is one of these things that takes real commitment. It is not an easy retrofit like solar pannels, once those are installed they pretty much run themselves. But a water catchement system is a lifestyle change. One book I read back a while ago, Design for Water by Heather Kinkade-Levario, is a great starting point. And there are devices out there that you can use for a retrofit if you are going to go this route…I have a few hogs I bought on sale that I am going to hook up soon, they are pretty cool and if you have a way to get them installed I recommend them. The Chronicle has a good piece today on Graywater as wel, and while it might not be at the top of your list when it comes to your next remodel, maybe you can think about ways to intgrate it.
A reader sent me an email the other day asking for a site or calculation that could help him determine how much money he would save if he installed higher R factor insulation. It is a damn good question, and while I referred him to SustainableSpaces for bids and/or an energy audit, it got me thinking about cost savings. Exactly specifically to the dollar and cent how much do we save when we install energy & water saving systems into our homes? It is a personal question as it relates to your baseline usage, and savings will flow from each person differently – my wife likes to point out that I take very long showers, so if I were not so much of a water pig, how many dollars would that add up to over the course of a year? There is this great article on Energy Use from National Geographic that has be inspired to go on an energy diet…I think I will get some baseline costs up, and track how changes in behavior and the installation of new systems impact actual costs, and report back on the savings. I haven’t a clue how to do it, and I should probably let my wife know also, but I will figure it out and post as I go.
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