Civil Liberties and Environment: June 2009 Archives
Insights don’t usually come from obvious places. I certainly never expected counter-surveillance strategizing to provide a new level of awareness of the wastefulness of our everyday approach to electricity use. Since all of us are trying to save money during the Bush Recession, I thought it was worth writing about.
A couple of years ago I wrote a series of articles about how average U.S. Americans could save energy and money in their daily lives. During that process, our household dutifully switched to CFL light bulbs, used power strips for the entertainment and computer centers, and unplugged “vampire” electronics like toasters that are only used a few times per day.
I’m sure I’m slow and lots of tech-savvy people have thought about this, but from a lay, consumer perspective, it never occurred to me how wasteful it is to have electricity pulsing to all areas of a residence all of the time. After all, a garage door opener may only be used once or twice per day, and the garage lights not at all. Outdoor lights need only have wattage supplied to them at night. Some people rarely use their basements.
We don’t understand exactly how the extensive sound/visual surveillance system in our house works. A contractor (who conspired to foreclose on my mother’s home as part of a drug entrapment scheme) seems to have arranged for his subs to change the wiring (either only for the surveillance or also as part of an overall effort to devalue the home for the foreclosure). Now multiple disparate rooms, as well as outdoor lights, are on the same breaker.
In April, as part of an ongoing effort to reclaim our privacy, our household innovated a counter surveillance-inspired energy and money-saving strategy: flipping off non-essential breakers. Since so many of the rooms are on the same one, it means that we’re using electricity in only a few rooms. We turn on the garage only when we need to come or go. At night, we use flashlights in most of the house or light from the refrigerator in the kitchen.
On May’s bill we cut the electricity usage almost by half of the previous year’s and so prevented about 370 lbs of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. Just our one household! (There was an extra person for part of last year’s bill, and we weren’t here for part of it – but still!)
Much of the writing and activity I did in relation to mainstreaming environmentalism had to do with making a difference without really changing or sacrificing. Sacrifice was boring and ugly. The fact that we have so quickly adapted to not having electricity everywhere in the house, and to cooking in the daylight, makes me hopeful. Throughout my entire life I had electricity in the kitchen all the time and now I don't. I probably won’t do it for the rest of my life but I know that I can and still feel happy and abundant (as much as possible under the current circumstances).
There's a certain amount of strength and comfort that comes from knowing you can let go of what you take for granted. The recession gives us all an opportunity to experiment with feeling content without consuming in the manner some call the “American Way of Life.” My grandparents were very American throughout the depression. Maybe we can all just feel lucky that as bad as things are, for most of us doing without is still a choice.
People complain about environmentalists wanting to curtail their freedoms through planet-saving restrictions. I look forward to the day when my American Way of Life doesn't mean needing to choose between enjoying privacy in my own home and using my appliances whenever I feel like it.
~~
A couple of years ago I wrote a series of articles about how average U.S. Americans could save energy and money in their daily lives. During that process, our household dutifully switched to CFL light bulbs, used power strips for the entertainment and computer centers, and unplugged “vampire” electronics like toasters that are only used a few times per day.
I’m sure I’m slow and lots of tech-savvy people have thought about this, but from a lay, consumer perspective, it never occurred to me how wasteful it is to have electricity pulsing to all areas of a residence all of the time. After all, a garage door opener may only be used once or twice per day, and the garage lights not at all. Outdoor lights need only have wattage supplied to them at night. Some people rarely use their basements.
We don’t understand exactly how the extensive sound/visual surveillance system in our house works. A contractor (who conspired to foreclose on my mother’s home as part of a drug entrapment scheme) seems to have arranged for his subs to change the wiring (either only for the surveillance or also as part of an overall effort to devalue the home for the foreclosure). Now multiple disparate rooms, as well as outdoor lights, are on the same breaker.
In April, as part of an ongoing effort to reclaim our privacy, our household innovated a counter surveillance-inspired energy and money-saving strategy: flipping off non-essential breakers. Since so many of the rooms are on the same one, it means that we’re using electricity in only a few rooms. We turn on the garage only when we need to come or go. At night, we use flashlights in most of the house or light from the refrigerator in the kitchen.
On May’s bill we cut the electricity usage almost by half of the previous year’s and so prevented about 370 lbs of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. Just our one household! (There was an extra person for part of last year’s bill, and we weren’t here for part of it – but still!)
Much of the writing and activity I did in relation to mainstreaming environmentalism had to do with making a difference without really changing or sacrificing. Sacrifice was boring and ugly. The fact that we have so quickly adapted to not having electricity everywhere in the house, and to cooking in the daylight, makes me hopeful. Throughout my entire life I had electricity in the kitchen all the time and now I don't. I probably won’t do it for the rest of my life but I know that I can and still feel happy and abundant (as much as possible under the current circumstances).
There's a certain amount of strength and comfort that comes from knowing you can let go of what you take for granted. The recession gives us all an opportunity to experiment with feeling content without consuming in the manner some call the “American Way of Life.” My grandparents were very American throughout the depression. Maybe we can all just feel lucky that as bad as things are, for most of us doing without is still a choice.
People complain about environmentalists wanting to curtail their freedoms through planet-saving restrictions. I look forward to the day when my American Way of Life doesn't mean needing to choose between enjoying privacy in my own home and using my appliances whenever I feel like it.
~~
