the next step

[the_siobhan]

Every resource I've ever seen about climate change gives the same basic instructions. "Turn down the AC. Get a more fuel efficient car. Buy locally."

We don't have air con. We bus and bike everywhere. We eat vegetarian most of the time, and every lightbulb in the house is compact fluorescent. We patch, repair, reuse and freecycle.

Now what? Where is the environmentalism 201?

*sigh*

I guess I could always write more letters.

What I'm listening to right this second: Knucklehead

Comments

[siani-hedgehog.livejournal.com]

but are the new systems as long-lasting? do they need more energy to manufacture? does their power savings make up for the embodied energy, when considered over the lifespan of the unit, and with the embodied energy of a replacement considered?

they probably do, i'm just doing a bit of NOT THAT SIMPLE ranting...

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on the ranting, trust me on this... I'm full up on "All we have to do..." solutions from the well-meaning and dreadfully earnest.

I'm less suspicious AC as a net win on replacement because of the HUGE amount of electric it eats up in comparison to some other things, and how trends are likely to only make new kit more and more of an improvement with additional use, which seems likely to continue for a while even if we cure every ill with modern society. Similarly, I'm less suspicious of wind and water generation than the saving ability of photoelectric generation (for which vast improvements in efficiency and cost have been just around the corner for something like four decades now), and solar water heating (as we discussed elsewhere a while ago in reference to chilled road tarmac).

A place where I see a HUGE potential win for living climate control for a lot of places *AND* a relative solution for spiraling real estate costs is to start looking at building building upside down. That is, put the garage and utility spaces on ground level and the living spaces below ground. Sure, you have to run lamps a lot, but efficient lamps we can make, from fluorescents and neons to LED and electroluminescent panels. Go down about 10 meters and your living space is the same temperature the whole year around, and usually very close to a comfortable one, solvable with a pretty simple heat exchanger in warmish climates, and smaller heaters than exist in above-ground homes in cooler ones.

[siani-hedgehog.livejournal.com]

re: underground homes

you tend to end up with very limited life buildings, though, because of problems with water ingress. and they require a lot of plastic products to keep dry at all. and in very cold regions, frost heave makes it *very* difficult to build something underground. and it really is wasteful to use electricity to light a building when it's already daylight out, no matter how "efficient" the light source may be. a much more efficient way to save on energy is to wear a nice wooly jumper in winter, draw your blinds in summer, and wear less when it's hot.

there are really, really clever things done with thermal mass in above ground buildings, too. you don't need to be in the ground to make use of that to keep things cool in the day and warm at night.