Saving Energy Without Derision

George Maschke writes "Saving Energy Without Derision (5 mb PDF) is a new (and free) e-book by former Sandia National Laboratories senior scientist Dr. Alan P. Zelicoff. This book is intended to be a real-world, no-nonsense, thoroughly documented collection of easy-to-implement recommendations to help the average thoughtful person to pick the 'low-hanging fruit' of conservation and renewable energy. The author is after the easy 75% of actions we can all take (but almost uniformly ignore) that most certainly make a difference in energy costs (after all that's what most people care about) and adjuring a bit of unnecessary adverse impact on the environment (which a few folks actually think is important beyond the mere dollar valuation). The author welcomes comments and intends to continuously update the book (consistent with readership interest) and address many new topics. For example, next on his list is an analysis of the economics and scientific basis of fuel-cell vehicles powered by hydrogen. (Bottom line, he maintains, is that it's a cruel hoax and energy disaster, and far less useful than, for example, heavy hybrid automobiles that get about 50 - 60 miles on an electric charge alone -- which accounts for more than 85% of driving in the US and elsewhere on a daily basis -- and which are available now.)"

Comments

Lowest hanging fruit of all

[blair1q]

Stop voting for Republicans.

"Derision" felt for the "Anti-Consumer"

[Cryofan]

I have not read the paper (it seems to be slashdotted), but with respect to the author's reference to "derision", this is something I am interested in, so I will go ahead and comment on it.

Some who tries to conserving energy may be said to be an "anti-consumer", because if one conserves energy, then that person is not being the best possible consumer.

The reason such persons are objects of derision is because we Americans have been socialized to be the best possible consumers we can be: years of corporate media propaganda have been directed towards encouraging us to spend as much on food as possible, as much on transportation as possible, as much on healthcare as possible.

But encouraging consumption is only one side of pro-consumer propaganda--those of us who resist the consumerist religion are held up for derision: people who advocate environmentalism, socialism, universal healthcare, and other viewpoint that are less than all-out friendly to consumerism, they are all objects of derision.

Also, viewpoints that advocate a more relaxed workplace and more leisure time off for Americans, they are also objects of derision among the consumerists. For example, European countries taht mandate 35 hour work weeks and 4 weeks or more a year of vacation, such as France. No, France wouldn't be an object of derision, would it.

And this is why America does not have universal healthcare, good public transportation, worker-friendly labor laws, etc etc etc.

"Green" is more of a fashion choice

[gelfling]

...than a statement of practical alternatives. That is why for example the Prius is a much bigger seller than the Civic Hybrid even though they accomplish the same thing. It's why recycling garbage bins are so distinctive looking and why people obsess about which day to put which trash in which can. People generally want to be seen to be environmentally concious just like they want to be seen wearing a dozen or more different colored ribbons at awards banquets.

Re:So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's because republicans have been dominant for the last 20 years and their class warfare has been successful.

You lose.

Now go vote for Bush, peasant.

Breeders Are a BAD idea

[Ralph Spoilsport]

Not because they don't work (they do) or that they are unsafe (they are, but can be managed in such a way to be quite safe).

The problem is: energy production systems need to be universal. And I DON'T think giving the likes of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Libya, Burma, Chechnya, etc. access to plutonium is a good idea under ANY circumstances.

The only nuclear power that's worth a damn is fusion, and we haven't puzzled that one out yet...

RS

You cannot see the forest for the trees

[Cryofan]

you wrote:

The evil corporation has become to the left what the physical embodiment of Satan became to the born agains: the external excuse for all the choices people make that they don't agree with.


So? An empty accusation with no reasoning or evidence?


We have this ability to chase our tails with the endless pursuit of bling-bling precisely because will DON'T have a socialist worker's paradise and universal health care.


Is that a tautology, circular reasoning, that I see before my eyes?


The nature of our country filters our population towards the entrepreneurial, puritan, workaholic, tightasses. Our consumer culture is the result of this, not some evil ad firm.


Oh, "the nature of our country"? Thanks for the trenchant insight.....


I'm all for ditching the endless debt and ceaseless work hours for a few new baubles, but claiming the American consumer is not making a choice and is merely another corporate victim, is false.


I ask you to look at history. Look at the wartime cultures of Japan and Germany. Look at what happened in those countries. Look at kamikaze pilots, at death camps. Why is it that those populations allowed such things, why would a young man go to his death? Why do people do things that are clearly against their own best interests? Is it possible that they were manipulated to do so against their best interests by powerful institutional entities?

Oh, but that could never happen here in America. We're special.