Tuesday, February 13th, 2007
Get Turned Off
Here’s the Thing:
Turn off 1 light bulb.
There have to be a million reasons to use less energy. I’ll give you four.
 |
|
Goodnight my banjo buddy. |
#1, unless your landlord is picking up your electricity bill, it costs you money. A kilowatt/hour saved is a kilowatt/hour earned.
#2, the energy we use in our homes is generated at power plants far, far away, often using oil that comes from even farther. Americans like to talk nervously about “our dependence on foreign oil.” Less energy = less “dependence.”
#3, burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) pollutes the environment. The less energy we use, the less fossil fuel we burn, the less pollution spews into our skies — and lungs.
#4, and probably most important by far, is that burning fossil fuels to generate electricity releases carbon dioxide into the air, and carbon dioxide is causing climate change and all its very serious consequences. I’ll go more deeply into climate change in a future posting, I promise. For now let’s leave it at this: our kids will thank us profusely someday for anything we do now to slow the pace of climate change. Really, we’re talking profusely here — did you get that? Profusely.
According to this sweet “Carbon Footprint” calculator from the Lexington Global Warming Action Coalition, which allows you to calculate just how much carbon dioxide you’re adding to the atmosphere each year, a single 60-watt light bulb used 4 hours per day generates 93 pounds of carbon dioxide annually.
Is there a light on in your home right now that you don’t need? How about taking a moment to switch it off. Go now. It’s okay, we’ll wait…
Or better yet, do what Ken Kitson is doing: offer your kid a few cents for each light he or she turns off when no one’s in the room.
on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 8:50 am:
Welcome aboard!
I’m glad to see somebody else trying to make a difference in the world by speaking up.
I’ve been pushing to have more lights turned off for years… especially outdoor lights. Is there any rational reason why everything needs to be lit up all the time? Sometimes, it seems like we actually go out of our way to waste energy.
Anthony
on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 11:39 am:
[…] Originally posted here on Jeff Allen’s new blog, OneLittleThing.org […]
on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 12:08 pm:
I know exactly what you mean, Anthony. The building across the street from me installed a big sign about a year ago advertising a rooftop cafe — it’s not bad, until the spotlights come on around 6:30 every night and shine in my office window until dawn. The kicker — I don’t think the cafe ever opened. But the lights never stop coming on.
on Friday, February 23rd, 2007 at 1:19 am:
Does anybody know if turning lights on and off creates a surge of power? Is it better to leave a light on in a room if I’m coming back shortly or should I continue to obsessively turn them on and off as I leave and enter rooms?