Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: [permaculture] the hydrogen argument

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Lee Flier" <lflier@mindspring.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] the hydrogen argument
  • Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 14:43:45 -0500

Claude wrote:

>But perhaps your extrapolated numbers are based on the amount of energy
>we presently use ?

Yes, but then that begs Jeff Owens' point: NO MATTER WHAT, we have to
conserve much more than we do. If we were serious about that, there are any
number of energy technologies that would become workable which already exist
today and are more efficient than hydrogen and more eco-friendly than fossil
fuels. However, switching to any form of alternate energy requires that we
use less energy.

Now some may find that boring compared to finding a silver bullet that will
allow us to continue as we have, we could be saving lots and lots of energy
NOW even with fossil fuels. If you intend to switch to alternative energy at
some point and you are concerned about the environment, then it makes all the
sense in the world to put some serious effort into reducing your consumption
NOW. Then it will be easy to switch to solar power or some alternative.

The good news is that as Jeff says, you don't have to live like a caveman to
cut down drastically on energy consumption. Many of the changes you need to
make are simple, some others are more complex and cost some bucks but
nonetheless are doable now if you want them. Replace your lightbulbs with
compact fluorescent bulbs, install solar tubes to light your home during
daylight hours, passive solar water heaters, etc. Make your next
refrigerator a SunFrost - yes it's expensive, but it will run on a couple of
solar panels and your current fridge won't. Get rid of any electric heating
elements and replace with gas which is much more efficient. I was shocked,
for example, to find how much electricity was being used to run my electric
coffee maker. Now, I boil water on the gas stove, brew the coffee in a
French press and then pour it into a thermal carafe. Saves a ton of power,
and no living in a cave required.

Obviously there are hundreds of little ways to conserve and that's just on
the personal level. Once you get into industry and design, it's a whole
other ball game and there are thousands of possibilities for improvement
there. But the idea of conservation first has to become ingrained in the
culture, as Jeff so rightly pointed out.

--Lee

---------------------------------
What The...?
http://www.what-the.com






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page