With the arrival of colder weather, and the filling-up of our fuel tank with toothgrindingly expensive fuel oil, I am ruminating ever more on the use of energy-efficient technologies. Tankwoman performed a mitzvah of energy saving with the installation of insulation in her attic, and there are all sorts of small and not-so-small (like my niece in RI who has not even turned her heat on yet, in the face of sleet and slush falling from the sky) steps that we can take. It's the Big Steps, however, that are going to make the difference.
Those big steps will involve large changes in our thinking and lifestyles, the change from a fossil fuel-powered life to one powered by alternative/sustainable technologies is such a large change that I think many people find it frightening, and so simply deny it will ever actually arrive. And perhaps we enviros are in part responsible for this fear, as we have perhaps focused too closely on the possible horrors of a post-petroleum age. The magazine Solar Today has a very uplifting column by the outgoing chair of the American Solar Energy Society, Thomas Starrs, on this very subject. The article is titled It's a Beautiful (Post-Petroleum) World, and is available only as a PDF file. He focuses on the positive aspects of this future society...
... the more we emphasize the scale of the transition and the magnitude of the challenge, the more we encourage people to shut us out because the issue seems just too big, and too scary, to confront. Instead of encouraging people to engage, we encourage people to adopt the proverbial ostrich solution. Promoting this kind of denial is counterproductive, to say the least. The solution, it seems to me, is for renewable energy advocates to spend less time talking to our families, friends andneighbors about the dire consequences of continued fossil-fuel dependence, and more time talking about the extraordinary opportunities associated with a post-petroleum, renewable-fueled, sustainable energy future. We need to paint a picture of a prettier place, one that will be cleaner and safer for our children, and for our children’s children.
One immediate opportunity that we should be talking more about is the development and deployment of improved energy technologies. Americans are extraordinary innovators, and in the face of acompelling enough crisis, individual entrepreneurs, research laboratories and large corporations alike will rise to the occasion by dedicating substantial resources to the development of more efficient, domestically available and environmentally superior energy technologies.
Perhaps Starrs is correct in this theory, and it's one I'm entirely open to adopting. To emphasize the benefits of beginning this transition to a sustainable future right now, while we still have some small margin of time left to us. Starrs lists the economic benefits of this transition in the article:
Perhaps the most meaningful part of the transition, in terms of empowering and rewarding individuals, is the promise of employment in careers that people can be proud of. A recent study by the U.S.Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) found that a modest shift in energy policy, including a 20 percent renewable portfolio standard and a shift in energy subsidies from fossil and nuclear technologies to renewable resources, would
create a net annual average of more than150,000 jobs between 2005 and 2020;
increase U.S. gross domestic product anaverage of $5.9 billion annually between2005 and 2020;• increase wages $6.8 billion in 2020; and
save all consumers — residential, commercialand industrial — $11 billion onnatural gas bills and over $16 billion onelectricity bills in 2020.
These policies also, according to the study, would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 27 percent from 2002 levels by 2020. Meanwhile, President Bush has been quoted repeatedly as saying that legally binding reductions in greenhouse gas emissions would “wreck our economy.” My view (and that of the U.S. PIRG, apparently) is exactly the opposite: Making the transition to a more efficient, more technologically advanced and more diverse energy system would create tremendous economic opportunity in this country.
Looked at from this perspective, we might all be a little more anxious to move towards the future with hope, not dread, with determination, not despair, with our sleeves rolled up instead of our heads in the sand. In the next installment of this post, I'm going to feature some houses that I wish I had right now, and when you see them - so will you.
