Energy Conservation and Recycling

In recent years there has been much discussion in the United States about energy conservation and recycling. But do we actually do very much?

If one throws out perfectly good incandescent bulbs to replace them with CFLs, is that really constructive? It takes energy to produce the CFLs. Waiting for incandescent bulbs to burn out before replacing them with CFLs is better. But we come closer to "going green" by spending time in the outdoors and keeping the lights off! Even indoors one can often sit near a window and enjoy natural lighting, sleeping during many of the hours of darkness.

Persons who carpool to the fitness center to exercise may save compared to driving there alone. But why not walk or bicycle in one's neighborhood and skip the membership in the fitness center?

New computers and video game consoles are more energy efficient than those from a decade ago. But why not enjoy some old fashioned board and card games instead? They are still fun. It is even easier to carry on a conversation and fellowship while playing old fashioned games without the noise of the video game console.

Your new car may get more miles per gallon than an old gas guzzler. But why not walk, bicycle, and use mass transit when appropriate? This can help significantly in reducing our carbon footprint. The author does not own a car, just renting one occasionally for trips -- though he admits he could do much more to conserve energy.

Your cell phone and various other electronic gadgets may offer easy Internet access. But why not read a good book, magazine, or hard copy of a newspaper? After all, often the most accurate, best written, and most effectively edited information on the Internet originates in a print media source somewhere. One's local newspapers, magazines, and quality books can be more informative than what one finds online in many cases - though even the largest research library lacks the diversity of the Internet, and increasingly new materials are available only online. Whenever options exist, read the hard copy at your local library or another location.

Recycling newspapers and plastic bags is great. But if you (like me) still read a paper copy of the newspaper, it is better to loan the newspaper to a friend to read before recycling it. And reusing plastic bags instead of buying new ones is often even better than recycling the old ones.

A new 5,000 square feet house may have energy efficient lighting and be super well insulated to save energy. But heating and cooling costs as well as lighting costs might be reduced even more if one chooses to live in a relatively small 1,500 square feet home -- or better yet a 500 square feet apartment. This single writer happily lives in a studio efficiency apartment with less than 300 square feet.

I could list numerous other examples of how conservation isn't really conservation. But I hope my point is clear. We in the United States talk about conservation and recycling. However, our extravagant and wasteful lifestyle results in our using much more energy than we need to and doing unnecessary harm to our environment.

Recently progress has been made in reducing energy usage in the United States, as this table on a U.S. Energy Information Administration webpage indicates. But much bigger reductions can be made in both the short term and long term if we truly take a hard look at our wasteful lifestyle and genuinely seek to change. Are we willing to do so?

SOURCE: "Table 1.5 Energy Consumption, Expenditures, and Emissions Indicators, 1949-2008," (last updated Dec. 22, 2009), U.S. Energy Information Administration (accessed May 12, 2010)