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Not a word about reducing consumption? Americans consume more power than almost anyone and it's not improving our lives. Most of us can reduce our consumption
by spodek 5y ago
Not a word about reducing consumption?
Americans consume more power than almost anyone and it's not improving our lives. Most of us can reduce our consumption 75% just on simple life improvements, at home and business. Nothing pollutes less than leaving the fuel in the ground. (Source: I'm not special and reduced mine about 90% and going. My latest electric bill was $4 and change (plus fixed line fees). In the spring I hit $1.40, as I wrote up in https://joshuaspodek.com/i-used-2-5-the-average-americans-electric-power-last-month https://joshuaspodek.com/i-used-2-5-the-average-americans-el... and https://joshuaspodek.com/12-sustainability-leadership-lessons-unplugging-my-fridge-for-6-5-months-taught-me https://joshuaspodek.com/12-sustainability-leadership-lesson...).
It's a question of values and which ones we want to live by. Stewardship, family, community, resilience, enjoying what we have, humility toward nature, meaning, and purpose are always available but we have to choose them.
- tsjq 5y agonot just Americans, almost nobody can reduce consumption on such a large scale.
- himinlomax 5y agoYou can reduce electricity consumption easily by banning electric vehicles! Or less flippantly: trying to reduce electricity use is very likely to result in increased fossil fuel use. And not just vehicles.
- bildung 5y agoEVs are a tiny market in the US, smaller than e.g. the EV market in Germany (which has <20% of the US population) - I can't imagine this to be a big source of new grid load. IMO a huge win-win situation would be enforcement of modern building techniques (proper insulation and/or thermal mass, double or triple glazed windows etc). That would enlarge qualitiy of living for the inhabitants, massively reduce energy consumption due to much less need for AC both in summer and winter. And buildings would probably last longer. If enforced by law, this wouldn't even increase TCO of new buildings due to scale. That this isn't currently available in the US is essentially market failure: Small scale for modern construction means much higher prices than elsewhere, and better building quality currently is too esoteric to proportionally raise resale value.
- FredPret 5y agoReducing the scope of civilization is hardly the answer. We want more electricity usage. Poor people should have electric cars and air conditioning too. What about infrastructure and consumer goods that use electricity-intensive things like aluminium. We should be growing more, never less. The weak and vulnerable will be hit hardest by a decline.