h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How about this? Ask yourself about your entertainment choices. Do you really need that ipod? do you have no other way to be entertained than watching an electronic device or playing an electronic game? Does the stereo or the radio or the tv have to be on every hour you are awake? And yes, the computer. Should it really be on 24 hours a day?

Just think, if we all massively curtail our useage, it might just make up for ONE of the hundreds of Coal fired power stations they build in China each year.

Not have the 'puter on 24 hours a day? THe thought terrifies me...

Another good way to cut down on heating bills is to keep all internal doors shut, that way you can get away with keeping temperatures lower.

When it gets chilly, cats make excellent slippers. Roll them on their backs and stand on their stomachs, they automatically grip your feet.

Very comfortable, but irritatingly noisy for a while.

Here's what I've done Novo: I sold my car last year, and I ride a bike everywhere. When something is out of biking range, I take public transportation.

I think it's a great idea to not leave the lights on, but it's really not going to make that much of a difference. a 100 Watt bulb will use 1 kW-hour in 10 hours - that's $0.04 of electricity in the US.

Also, we've co-mingled 2 separate issues. Recylcing - also a great thing, but that actually uses up a lot of energy. So if you're worried about global warming & recycling, you need to just consume less, so there is less to recycle.

I leave most of my computers on 24 hours a day, but that's because they're running BOINC projects - I've donated all the spare computer time I have to large scale computing projects for science.

Hah, power consumption of an ipod. Now there's something I'm never going to lose sleep about destroying the planet over.

If you've got a very recent computer (AMD64 or Core 2) then they have power settings that dynamically turn down the clock multiplier and can disable the second core. These save quite a lot of power.

Computer power consumption doesn't have to be a big deal though: if your computer is on a lot then you can turn down your heating. You can also hang clothes behind it to quickly dry them.

I was told that leaving my PC on all day helped with the longevity of it... instead of shutting it down and turning it on again several times a day. So it's probably on for about 12 hours a day.

Though Nog leaves his laptop plugged in 24/7, which I presume is a standby mode thing.

Our tv and dvd player have 'standby' so we have them (and the video player) plugged into a four-plug adaptor thingy with a switch, and we always turn the switch off when we finish watching a film.

Our mini stereo (cd, radio, cassette) is kept on 'standby' because if not I have to reset the favourite radio station every day.

We've bought those twirly-tube energy saving lightbulbs to use in our kitchen, bathroom and livingroom ... sure hope they last as long as promised as they cost a blxxdy fortune!

And the last time I owned a car was 25 years ago. I've never felt the need for one since.

All in all, I think I am doing as much as I can - and also more than most - when it comes to trying to save energy, etc.

az

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Oh hey! Another thing I always do. Hang up my clothes to dry. Much better for your clothes as well.

az

We should have a for us Prius drivers

There's another angle that doesn't make sense. We have a government committed to mass immigration without considering the environmental impact. As the population gets larger, the demand for electricity, gas, water, food etc will rise. We also need a mass house-building programme to provide homes, but how many acres of concrete will that require?

A stable population can, through education & taxes, reduce it's useage of resources. A rising population will inevitably require more resources.

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Now there you go. At the risk of getting preachy and nasty and even a little snarky, Tubby, EVERY action you take has an impact. Even one you view as so small. The power consumption of an ipod is just one tiny aspect of that little piece of equipment.

Somewhere, it is being manufactured. The manufacturing process requires power and resources. Getting the resources requires power consumption. Getting the finished product to you requires resources and expenditure of power as well. I honestly have no idea how many millions of ipods there are in the world. How big a stack would they make if we piled them all up? Then how much power does the ipod represent? A piece of equipment that really is not necessary for life or happiness no matter how addicted you are to it.Do we REALLY need to be entertained every waking moment? What would happen if we just listened to our own thoughts with no sound track. Is that too scary for you?

How about our cell phones too? I know of people who have more than one cell phone because it is more convenient to have two numbers. Why do we need to have a telephone in every room of our house? How about TVs? How many do we really need, huh?

I really wouldn't want an iPod anyway. I love silence. Music occasionally, but certainly not when walking in the woods. Walking in town, perhaps, but generally I prefer my thoughts. I can't think properly with music playing.

I'm not as environmentally aware as I should be. Our family are fairly good at recycling, and getting better at not buying food with superfluous packaging. Six apples on a polystyrene tray wrapped in clingfilm. Why would anyone want that?

But we're not very good at buying local food. I must research it a bit more.

Our house is kept no warmer than it needs to be. The range heats all our water and the radiators, and cooks our food. It's only lit in the evenings. If we turn off the rads before we go to bed, there's still plenty of hot water in the tank for a shower in the morning. And the washing machine draws down hot water from the system, so its inbuilt heater doesn't have much work to do.

Unless we have a houseful of people (a not uncommon occurance in the summer months), and so are consuming more hot water than usual, the range is lit only in the evenings. We're all hardy types, and don't feel the cold. Almost always sleep with the window open.

TRiG.

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Oh Jeez, we actually agree on something. Higher use of resources (including energy, obviously) is the only reason I think immigration should be severely curtailed.

On the broader point, I think it's very simple: we're screwed. We simply can't have this capitalist society based on constant, exponential use of resources. One way or the other, it's going to stop. We need to cut carbon emissions by about 70% (IIRC), while managing resources sensibly, and I can't see how we'll manage it.

The carbon-emissions trading scheme could, if handled wisely, directly attribute the cost of CO2 to those who use it. It would have to be monitored and structured *extremely* carefully in order not to be ripe for abuse.



<<A stable population can, through education & taxes, reduce it's useage of resources. A rising population will inevitably require more resources.>>

Two in a row!

Massive contraception programmes should be started in the Third World with immediate effect. It's not true that all developing countries have high birthrates because they want to, it's mainly cos they like sex and don't have access to contraception. The Bush administration could even start to fund some of them, but that's another thing

Also, new houses (new fLIckin *everything*) should be built with energy efficiency in mind. If that means terraced houses or flats as opposed to detached, then put taxes on detached houses. Offer tax breaks to people sharing houses. Give businesses tax breaks if they can have people work from home one or two days a week. Every area which can support trees should have trees planted on it (assuming that does contain more carbon), which would also decrease flood risk, as the roots system hold something silly like 50 times as much water as grassland.

All of which *will* cost a fortune, but it'll cost more to do nothing.

Here's a link to what, eventually, we're going to have to do. It's pretty long though, so I don't imagine everyone will read it all.

http://www.npg.org/forum_series/steadystate.html

Bloomin' eck, should I have a lie down ?

Broadly agree with your points, except the bit about developing countries liking nookie. I think it's more to do with a historically high infant mortality rate. Cultures haven't adapted to modern medicines alleviating this, so families tend to be on the large side. The misogynism in many Asian cultures also leads to couples continuing to have babies until they have a son.

By contrast, if you go out and kick a football around you will produce more carbon dioxide and other waste products, and require more food. How much does it take to produce a coat and a pair of boots?

I'm all for efficiency, I have a general dislike of seeing things get wasted, I'd feel really bad if I didn't finish everything on my plate, but for most people its never going to be a case of sacrifice all for the environment. If you're asking people to make lifestyle changes, ask them to make worthwhile ones.

Heating stuff up, motor vehicles and perhaps energy saving lightbulbs are where you'll get the best result/effort.

For the record, I don't actually own an ipod.

It really bugs me that every time we purchase a piece of electronic equipment it has a remote control. I mean, we have a universal remote, so why are they making all these little plastic boxes. Besides, I have to dust them. And it makes me feel terribly guilty about the waste, too.

Something I think we also need to think about is why is it that so many people are feeling the need to live in larger and larger houses? I see so many folks who are just a couple who feel like they don't have enough space unless they have 5000 square feet of luxury home. No matter how efficient it is, it still has to be built and heated/cooled.

When I was a kid we had one bathroom which all six of us in teh family successfully shared. Nowadays, we have homes built that have a bathroom for each and every bedroom. I'm not sure why this has become such a necessity for us here in teh US. Again, space that must be heated/lit/cooled and built using precious resources. And why? Because we can't share a bathroom? Because little Mary cannot dry her hair and put on her makeup in her own bedroom while Junior washes up?

and what is with this need to take a shower every day? We weren't that much dirtier when I was a kid, we didn't smell bad. We washed up during the week, using about a gallon of water in the bathroom sink, and then once a week took a bath. Just ranting.

Those were the days eh ! Outdoor loo and a chanty under the bed. Fourteen people using chanties all night and only one flush in the morning. Twelve brothers in one bed meant no need for heating.

Actually, we did have an outdoor loo for quite a while. My folks made the big mistake of moving into a house that had a bathroom with fixtures but none of them were actually hooked up to anything, the place had no well. The man who owned the house before we did had a bedridden invalid wife and she didn't want to die in a house with no bathroom. so he put in a bathroom. Looked good, and she was happy, she died in blissful ignorance that it didn't work. My folks, poor innocents, didn't realize there was no well. When they looked at the house, there was no power hooked up, so it didn't seem odd that there was no water coming out of any faucets. Live and learn.

That's a great story

I'm going to start breathing slower.