CraigBen wrote:Peak Oil?
So what will you give up?
well?
It has to be a joint effort - one way or other it is coming, so let's decide.
I'll start the ball rolling :
1. Burning electric lights when I am not in the room.
2. ........
I note that you just joined this forum, so welcome. I too have found it a place to learn something every time I visit.
Your suggesting turning out lights, prompts my answer here since it is a very common misconception of how to save energy.
During the heating season, ten 100 watt bulbs consume 1 Kw of electricity and add 3412 BTU per hour of heat to the house (touch a bulb- it is hot!). If you turn the lights out, the house heating system has to run longer to replace that 3412 BTU of heat from gas, oil or wood, or whatever you heat with. Thus there is NO total energy savings by turning out lights, since the heat loss of the house is set by the construction/insulation of the house and the thermostat setting. There may be a small cost savings if electricity costs more than the others. If you heat with electricity ( not a heat pump) then it is a wash- one electric heat source switched to another. You just save a little money on bulbs.
In contrast, turning off lights in an air conditioned house in the summer time saves energy twice, the lights plus the A/C compressor electricity to remove that 3412 BTU of heat from the house. So you are partly right.
I would suggest an alternative. At this time of year a far larger electric energy saving is to eliminate outdoor electric Christmas decoration lights. They heat the outdoors and are a total waste of energy.
In the end though, saving small items are not enough. Peak oil is the coming shortage of cheap liquid fuels, mostly for transportation. Thus my candidate is to start with personal transport.
Reduce the vehicles owned from two (or more) to one ( or none) and then reduce the miles you need to drive by lifestyle changes. We cut from two cars and a truck used just occasionally to just one car.
The reason this is also so wildly unpopular is that we place a higher premium on optimizing time, rather than saving energy. By definition productivity is output per unit of time.
Thus a married couple with two cars, can quickly get to two jobs, juggle multiple errands, get kids to multiple places in a day, and maximize the things they get done in a day. Using a bus takes more time to do 5 errands in 5 places. Cut to just one shared car and they can't get it all done! They use fuel more efficiently, but use time much less efficiently. In some cases cutting to one car, might mean cutting to one income.
Cutting down to one car almost certainly means slowing down the pace of living and slowing down the number of events done in an average day. It is a major lifestyle change. But eliminating some of those events probably saves both energy and money too. Slowing down may be better for everyone, and save visits to the doctor for stress illnesses too.
We have not begun to consider the lifestyle effects of reduced use of the automobile on family life and the economy. Cutting from two cars just to one would seem draconian to a lot of couples. They need to start thinking about it. Someday even having one car may be a luxury of the rich.
An expert is someone who has made every mistake possible in their field and learned how to prevent them.