Advocates are calling on us to reduce fossil fuel emissions and conserve energy by reducing our speeds on the road. We’re also recycling more, to reduce waste and get more out of the packaging we use.
Plus, it helps to reduce the amount of air conditioning we run and to turn off lights once you leave the room.
All good ideas, but I need to find a “Conservation Guru” on some mountaintop to ask (after removing my sandals and bowing in humility):
If I’m driving uphill, do I conserve more energy by driving slowly, or by getting out of first gear, where my car works the hardest?
If I’m going downhill, do I conserve more energy by braking the car to slow down, or by using the momentum of gravity to create some of my cars acceleration?
Do I save more energy by shutting off the air conditioning completely when I leave, or by setting it at a reasonable temperature so that when I come in at 2 in the afternoon I don’t have to blast it to cool it down?
Do I save more energy by turning the lights off every time I leave the room, or only if I’m sure I’m not coming back in in a couple of minutes? In other words, does it take more energy for the bulb to burn, or to turn it on? Actually, I have the same question about the car. If I’m stopping for under a minute should I keep the car running? Doesn’t it use the most fuel when I start it up?
Does the amount of energy and water used to clean my recyclables, and the resources necessary to reconvert the plastics back into usable plastic objects, justify the recycling process?
How about paper? Why don’t newspapers simply pick up the papers at the end of the week, the way milkmen did back in the day?
Pick up the “empties,” recycle them, and send ‘em right back to us the next week.
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