We’ll muddle through
After swapping out the power supply and CPU fan with higher quality models,
one of my desktops is finally quiet enough to contribute to the SETI at Home.
This project is a small way I can contribute to science without actually being a
formal scientist myself. Once I quiet the other machine I have, I may set that
to working on the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search.
Maybe I should leave the machines off. Together, they’ll consume about 300 or
so watts as they tear through data during idle time. Doggone it! I have a
network for a reason though. I can finally set these things to be development
servers. Maybe even tack a server outside my firewall. Something I’ve been
meaning to do for years.
Anyway, I’ve been thinking about the small things we all do to help. I guess
I’m thinking about the world. I don’t know if my friends are a representative
bunch but, it seems like we’ve all entered this mode of quiet preparation. We
roll our eyes cynically as governments and corporations stumble, pontificate and
spin on the subjects of fossil fuels and global warming. Most of my friends have
already drawn the conclusion that if the world is going to change, it’s the rank
and file that are going to change it.
Think about it. Can we really imagine the current administration do something
serious about fossil fuel exhaustion? Do we really want them to? Seriously. Mr.
Bush seems pretty incompetent to me. Do we really want this guy to take on
global warming? Can you imagine how he’d try to do that? The mind reels in
horror!
I say don’t wait for him. Don’t wait for the government or the corporations
to figure it out. Don’t even wait for Greenpeace or the Nature Conservancy to
issue some statement or air a documentary or protest outside the UN.
You can get ready now. Get ready for the new world now. No, need to shout or
write Congress. Just make changes in your own life.
- Do you really need a car? I mean really. Telecommute. Mooch commutes off
your friends. Ride a bike with cargo space. Move to a dense urban
environment–suburbia sucks. Suburbia was a bad idea when it was invented back
in the early Twentieth Century. Move to someplace with sidewalks. - If you need a car, buy a hybrid damn it! If you gotta have a truck for
work, make it diesel. - Don’t have kids. Really. Don’t have kids. Think of some other way to leave
your mark on the world. Take care of your friends kids. Take care of your
family’s kids. Think of all the money you’ll save. It’s not selfish to not
have kids. Ignore all the comments and funny looks. - If you gotta have a kid. Have only one kid.
- Never buy new furniture. Never. If you need furniture, shop around for
used furniture. Take or buy old furniture from your parents and friends–really, you’re doing
them a favor. - Think about why you’re buying anything. Do you need it to survive? Is
there some cheaper way to satisfy this desire. People have so much stuff now,
they have cart it way in special boxes to stored. Why? Did they really need
it? - Buy a lot less. I repeat it. Stop buying crap you don’t need. Wanna have
fun? Visit your friends and use their crap. Go on a cheap vacation by train. - Eat a lot more fruits and veg. You don’t have to stop eating meat, just
eat a lot more fruits and veg. Make sure it’s local. - Buy fluorescents and mix them with your incandescents. You’ll get the warm
look for fewer watts. - Buy a lot less crap. Did I mention this?
- Every major city has businesses which recycle and buy used computer
hardware. Find these and use them. Never throw a piece of electronics in the
trash ever again. I mean it. - Don’t worry about factory workers in developing countries recycling the
heavy metals from your electronics. This is a big problem but it’s really for
the big businesses and governments to solve. Not you. You’re doing your part
by creating a supply, let someone else work out the process issues. - If you are a serious software gaming nerd, don’t buy complete systems.
Build them yourself and upgrade them in a modular way. I think individual
cards are easier to recycle than game consoles. - Why buy a house? Only buy a house if you plan to pass it on to someone and
they promise to do the same, otherwise all you’re doing is renting long term,
with no chance to collect the damage deposit if you croak. - Buy a used house. Upgrading it can be your new hobby. Have fun.
- Anything new that you buy must be energy efficient and built to green
design specs. Ideally with a corporate buy-back policy. - Stop subscribing to paper magazines. Ask if the publishers have a purely
web or e-mail based way of sending you the magazine content. - Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. You know the drill. You’ve probably already
heard of many yourself. - Oh, and buy a lot less crap.
In these small ways, the greenhouse gases will lessen. Fewer power plants
will need to be built. Technology will continue to advance. Quietly the whole
world will, with agonizing slowness, just move solar, wind, nuclear and tidal
energy. Probably then people will be arguing about how fast and by what method
should we remove the greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
We’ll muddle through. We always have.
As I said, it’s a young technology. Those Priuses and Insights are selling like hotcakes though, that’s undeniable. Maybe that will give Toyota, Honda and others the money they need to make hybrid technology better?
I really don’t care personally. I don’t plan ever to have a car.
I just discovered I’ll have to change my nick in typekey. It idents me as Mr. Farlops still.
So my problem with current hybrids is this:
1) Their actual gas milage improvement is grossly distorted by the testing procedures that were never designed for the concept of hybrid technology. They get comparable milage to a good diesel with less performance and more expensive fuel.
2) They pollute just as much if not more than any one of many pzev super low emission vehicles made by Ford, Honda and Volkswagen.
3) The battery disposal/replacement issue is a factor that people don’t have a clear handle on.
4) The additional cost is not offset by fuel savings.
I’m not counting them out, I’m all for the concept and I’m glad that they are selling and are popular. But from a scientific point of view they are falsely green. Someone racing around in a ‘Bio-diesel’ powered torque monster can not only blow the doors off of a hybrid, (leaving a swath of deep fried food scent in their wake) they can do so knowing that they are really using post consumer waste and renewable fuel.
Please add me to the approved poster’s list now.
Baka writes, “Hybrids are over rated as well, until there are really efficient Hybrids/Fuel Cell vehicles I would advise passing. Diesel and small displacement DFI forced induction gas engines are the way to go still.”
Hybrids are a young technology, granted. If you want performance, my whining will fall on deaf ears anyway. So? Don’t buy a hybrid. Whatever.
Surely there is something else you can think of to reduce your ecological footprint though, right? It doesn’t have to be your car.
Baka writes, “Um, if you buy a house you end up with a house. Why buy someone else a house by renting it?”
Good point. You could sell the house when you get old and the kids move away. Okay, scratch that. I’ll buy a condo instead though, once I get my finances stable enough to pay mortgage and land tax on it.
Um, if you buy a house you end up with a house. Why buy someone else a house by renting it? Hybrids are over rated as well, until there are really efficient Hybrids/Fuel Cell vehicles I would advise passing. Diesel and small displacement DFI forced induction gas engines are the way to go still.