Energy Wisdom

Recycling has gone mainstream. It's one of the few successes to occur during the Bush years. Why did it catch on so quick? Can we make it a model for future green thinking?

Recycling worked because it was cheap and required only a modicum of effort. The city sent me a coupon to get a nice blue bin to use for recyclables free of charge and they pick up stuff every week on the cuff. Waste management entrepreneurs discovered a lucrative business keeping paper, plastic, glass, fiber and cellulose out of the landfills and putting it back into the use chain at a profit. It's not as profitable as it was three years ago but it will come back. There's an army of gleaners out there reminiscent of the days of the rag man. I've always said invite the population of a third world country to America to have at it with our trash. They'd build a thriving economy from our throwaways. Streets and vacant lots would sparkle, every crumb and twig would disappear.

So we're looking for ideas that are easy to implement, not too expensive and reward the participants with energy savings and a nice green feeling. How about mowing your own lawn with an electric lawnmower? If you're too lazy or old to mow your own hire a lawn service provider that makes use of electric engines, battery technology or even good old manual power to quietly cut the grass, trim the hedges and whack the weeds. Send every noisy, smoky, two stroke gas appliance to the crusher. I can do all my yard work at 6 a.m. because my handy machines are stone silent and they use about $.50 worth of electricity to do a full hour's worth of work. How many barrels of oil and pounds of carbon would we save if we could get full cooperation and compliance with this one idea?

If you own a home eventually you will have to replace the roofing shingles. What if every new roof was composed of composite tiles containing strands of solar fiber. In twenty years or so we could get the majority of roofs in the country photo voltaic. Then we connect every roof in every neighborhood to construct a electronic dynamo that feeds into the existing grid. Now we have heretofore wasted space at the top of every home producing energy for the entire nation. It would be nice if the government would help to subsidize this project with some energy credits.

Every city should be surrounded by small farms of 15 to 50 acres. All the farms would enter a cooperative agreement and neighborhood markets would fill with fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, eggs and dairy that is organically produced and sustainable to the area. Excess production would be dried, tinned or frozen throughout the season to provided healthful local foodstuffs all winter long. Let the row crop farmers grow fuel crops and keep the corn syrup, seed meal and bean oil out of the food chain. This would provide hundreds of jobs for artisan millers, bakers, butchers, provisioners and green grocers. In addition to this every city should sponsor community gardens.

All things are doable. They only need to be done.