The following is my take on a selection from Environmental Studies, by Thomas Easton. This is it in a nutshell, tried to get the just of what the author was saying. Please leave a comment of your take on these issues.
Selection 15
This reading focuses on four main points; Efficiency and how we are moving towards a more efficient world, vehicles as an opportunity to save as opposed to a problem, Renewable energies and how they are gaining strength, and the idea that Climate change is cheaper to fix then it is to do nothing.
The idea that to be good for the environment has meant to widen your pocket book couldn’t have been more wrong. The fact is that if you are more efficient with your resources then you use less of them, requiring less money to operate and more money in your pocket. Companies such as DuPont, IBM, and Bayer have realised this potential to be more efficient in order to cut operating costs and greater their profits. DuPont has effectively managed to boost production by 30%, while lowering energy and greenhouse gas emissions[1]. So in fact being more efficient is better for the environment and the company.
The reason efficiency isn’t accepted widely is because of two reasons, people relate efficiency with having less, doing less, as opposed to doing more with less, the other reason is because people aren’t aware of how much they could be saving in the big picture, they don’t see how saving a few bucks here or there will add up to a lot over the course of a year, a decade, or over a lifetime.
The Efficiency Revolution1
With advances in production and technology, energy efficient products have gone from expensive to cheap, now costing no more than in efficient products. Take Compact fluorescent light bulbs, twenty years ago they sold for twenty dollars apiece, today are now selling for two to five dollars 1 . These compact fluorescent light bulbs now compete with less efficient bulbs, using 80% less energy, and lasting ten times as long1 .
When looking at efficiency, often you compare the cost of adding these efficient features, to the amount of energy they actually save you over time. They lack the savings that are added because of these efficient features, like say the need for a heat source. Lovins compares his 1984 Colorado house; by adding extra insulation, efficient windows and proper air ventilation, he’s eliminated the need for a furnace altogether, saving him the expense of buying a furnace.
So now instead of looking at a building and saying it can be more efficient here, here and here, you look at it as being efficient as a whole.
Vehicles of Opportunity1
Transportation is a major consumer of oil resources and green house gas emissions, accounting for a third of the U.S carbon emissions1. It’s obvious that if we are to reduce are carbon foot print that we have to reduce emissions, therefore improve transportation. A study sponsored by the Pentagon, revealed that if we reduce the weight of the vehicle, while improving the engines and drive trains, and making the vehicles more aerodynamic, that we can cut a substantial chunk of the emissions they emit.
The reason they are so inefficient is because the engines we use are just not getting enough power to the wheels. In essence they only deliver about one tenth the energy to the movement of the car, the other ninety percent is wasted1. To improve emissions, we must lower the weight of the vehicle, and improve the amount of energy input to the energy output, making are cars and trucks go farther, while using less resources.
Reduction in vehicle weight, and improved energy inputs to outputs will not be the only improvement we need. If we are to implement these efficient design features we also need a more efficient fuel source for these vehicles to run on. Now while we are starting to see electric and hydrogen fuelled cars, the chapter focuses on home grown bio fuels, derived from food stocks, woody plants, and corn, and another type of fuel that sees the switch to cleaner burning fuels like natural gas, that emit less carbon1.
The switch to these more efficient vehicles and modes of transportation will mean a less oil dependant world. Not only will we see the benefit of cleaner air, we will have a smaller carbon foot print, less resources spent on oil, less conflict over these scarce resources, and also an improved economy, where jobs are created to grow these new fuels, and make these new efficient vehicles.
Cheaper To Fix1
We are starting to see these new technologies that are more efficient and at the same time are saving us money, while costing us just as much as inefficient technologies; we are seeing a rise in the popularity of these products. Because this is a profitable market, we are seeing a rise in the amount of businesses and individuals using these efficient technologies, altering and reducing are impact on the environment. As we see a rise in this field we will start to see a decline in our global carbon footprint. We will also see the advance to even more efficient technologies as time goes on, ending up with a world of less dependent and more efficient societies.
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