My husband is obsessed (really obsessed) with reducing our carbon footprint. Our conversations may start in many places (what’s for dinner? how was your day?) and will end up at – “You know, there are now fluorescent light bulbs that look just like a regular light bulb – they squeezed the whole coil into the bulb!” One night this week, he could not sleep because he wanted to be awake at the time the furnace turned on to see if the auxiliary heater would turn on. (Apparently this auxiliary heater is EVIL).
He spent serious time this week talking to heating contractors about our heating system, which they all agree is brand new and totally the most efficient on the market – everything is well insulated and well installed. He wanted to take the next step and install a geothermal heating system meaning that they rip out your backyard and put in 1000 feet of pipes filled with some sort of fluid that makes the whole system more efficient. Right now, we could get back $20,000 in tax rebates for this “green” installation. So Jeremy really, really wanted it to be close to $20,000. I said no way was it going to be even close – I said it was going to be at least $40,000.
Get this, the quote was $55,000. Crazy. We are totally NOT going to get the geothermal system installed.
Laff it could always be worse
and, undoubtedly, it will be.
People are not like wine Im sorry
to say-they do NOT improve with age.
HOLD YOUR GROUND: 40K would be
much better spent on a jacuzzi…….
(sorry).
I think the easier way to get everything GREEN is that nobody is around. Very nature this way, but I intend to be around until my full term is up 🙂
I just don’t believe too much in the ways of tackling our environment problems these days. For example:
1) Electric car: Too expensive to produce and maintain which can be translated directly to mean more energy is needed to produce and maintain.
2) Organic food: Can’t support the world population. Right now, 50% of our population are already starving.
3) Solar energy: Less juice to go around to big users, including residential users.
4) Wind power: Need to be in a windy place and hopeful the wind does not blow your stuff and you away.
5) etc, etc …
It is a fact that several Global Warming and Cooling cycles have already happened without any human being around. And 99% of all spieces on Earth were extinct. I am sure that will soon include us.
Yes, we need to leave as much as possible to our next generation and generations after that.
But, the only way we can achieve that is “USE LESS and USE WISELY” -not inventing something and, with that good feeling, use much more. It just does not add up to what we really want – Save The Environment.
An excellent example, a barrel of oil is dropping from ~US$140.00 to ~$35.00 very recently. Why? By using less, of course! The amount it saves would rival millions and millions of electric car.
Science has its limits and nature will prevail. Human being is just an accidental traveler on Earth.