</font><font color="blue" class="small">( No, I'm not kidding.
I hear all the time how Americans are wasteful. How? List the ways.
Later,
Dan )</font>
Easy, we are just like Europeans, Japanese, Russians, English, French, etc.
1) Car pool? No way. I worked a year for the Army, and all the soldiers I worked with lived in the same housing unit. Every morning, we all drove our cars to the same work site, all stood in morning formation after parking our cars. When the duty day was done, we all drove our individual cars back to the same-shared housing unit. Fifteen cars every day drove the same route "convoy" style to and from work.
I am not busting the chops of the folks in the Army, but the same thing happens every day in the civilian world. Folks who could share a ride, but it is to "inconvenient".
I am lucky enough to be able to ride my bicycle to work everyday. I look at cars and see no ride sharing. Maybe one or two, but essentially none.
I saw my parents in Seattle/Tacoma area last week. The freeway from Tacoma to Seattle has HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lanes, 2 or more people. The HOV lane was "empty" Thousands of cars, stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic and my car whizzing by at 60 mph in the HOV lane. Alone, in the HOV lane.
My In-laws live 15 miles from my home. My BIL lives 5 miles further. My BIL passes within 2 miles of my in-laws when he comes to my home for a party. He won't stop to share a ride with my In-laws. So, 4 people show up, driving 2 cars, having come from the same essential location.
My parents live in Tacoma, Washington. During my visit, the temperature ranged from 60 in the a.m. to 75 in the p.m. My parents have the HVAC set at 70 degrees. In the morning, heat was on and at night AC was on. No one ever opened a window. When I opened a window, they were very unhappy. The best temperature and no humidity in the world, and they let the HVAC run all day.
All the folks I have mentioned complain bitterly about the price of energy. They waste energy everyday and yet are clueless on how wasteful they are. They feel everyone else should be doing something to "lower" energy prices. They never consider themselves part of the solution. But they all want something done.
My neighbor makes a dozen trips everyday. First, he heads out to get the morning paper. Comes back after a 2mile drive, car barely warm. Then, two hours later, heads out to get some groceries. Comes back after 2 mile trip, car barely warm. An hour later, he heads out to get some gas, comes back, car barely warm. Then, he heads out to go to George Webbs to have a late lunch, comes back, car barely warm. 2 hours later, heads out to get a six-pack, comes back, car barely warm. All this fellow has to do (and I love my neighbor) is combine all these trips into one. But noooooooooooo, he likes being wasteful, but he does not see it as wasteful. He is clueless.
I work at a large site in Milwaukee. We have to go downtown for meetings. Three cars get driven to the same meeting, we all pay for parking, and we all drive back to the same site when the meeting is over, but no one wants to share a ride. I offer, but they all say, thanks, but no thanks.
Every night I watch streetlights running all over Milwaukee. Two in the morning, no one out except me and millions of lights humming away. Then, 6 a.m., sun is up, half the lights are still on. The natural light is so good, you can see colors. When there is enough light to see colors, you don’t need streetlights. How about turning off half the streetlights after 2 a.m.? All you hear is “not in my neighborhood, I need all those lights on at 2 a.m. for “safety”.
My neighbor runs traditional incandescent bulbs. All night long, lights on in the house. Refuses to use compact fluorescents, they “cost to much”. Refuses to use motion detectors to activate lights, “too much trouble”. In the summer, same heat producing incandescent lights pumping out tons of heat, windows closed and AC running to cool the house being heated by incandescent lights. Touch an incandescent light next time you have your AC running. If it is on, bet you cannot touch long before you burn your finger. Touch the same wattage compact fluorescent, you can hold onto it all day long. One produces tons of heat and very little light; the other produces lots of light and very little heat.
When I go on a trip, I turn my water off. Easy to do. My neighbor thinks it is too much bother. He leaves for a week, water heater humming away, producing tons of warm water that no one uses.
I installed a ‘solar clothes dryer” (clothes line). My neighbors think it looks silly and so much trouble to use. Eighty-degree day, sun shining, and they would prefer to use their gas dryer since it is “easier”. Hanging up clothes is too much work.
In both examples, the folks who refuse to turn off their water heater when gone or won’t put up and use a clothesline complain about “no one is doing anything about the high price of energy. They are right, “no one” is doing anything.
In my office, folks refuse to turn off their computers at night or on the weekends. So for 16 hours a day during the week and 24 hours a day on the weekends, thousands of computer doing nothing but consuming power. And don’t even mention the folks who go on vacation for a week, gripes, they still leave their computers running.
Waste=no personal responsibility.
Bob
