Lose some weight on the Waste Diet

St. Louis architect Maren Engelmohr, her husband and her two kids are going on the Waste Diet and challenging all of us to join them.  Check out their website at http://www.thewastediet.com/. Join the challenge!

Jared Diamond on why 32 is a scary number.

Early in December, we wrote and submitted to the NYTimes Op-Ed page an essay on the perils of our consumption-oriented society. The essay did not get selected. We can take heart, however, in the fact that the message got printed anyway. In today’s paper (Wed, January 2, 2008), Jared Diamond’s essay squarely tackles the issue of consumption, global population and standards of living. He writes that the

“average rates at which people consume resources like oil and metals, and produce wastes like plastics and greenhouse gases, are about 32 times higher in North America, Western Europe, Japan and Australia than they are in the developing world….If India as well as China were to catch up [to Western consumption rates], world consumption rates would triple. If the whole developing world were suddenly to catch up, world rates would increase elevenfold. It would be as if the world population balooned to 72 billion people (retaining present consumption rates).

This is an important essay and an important message, please read it in full here.

A Gift for Planet Earth: Changing the Psychology of Consumption

Every day of the holiday season, we are reminded that giving is good for the soul. Giving to a worthy cause is not seen as a sacrifice, it’s something you want to do, especially when the feeling you get in return is so rewarding. But, we are also reminded to buy stuff-lots of stuff, for everyone on our holiday lists. While I don’t have anything against stuff, per se, I do think most of us probably have too much of it. So, here’s an idea. Instead of buying lots more stuff, give a little holiday cheer to the planet-by buying and using less all year long.

All the stuff we eat, wear, and use was grown, sewn, manufactured, transported, and will be disposed of using electricity. Today, that electricity is produced principally by burning coal or splitting atoms. In the United States alone, coal-fired and nuclear power plants make up more than 70 percent of all the electricity used. Further, although the US accounts for only five percent of the total world population, we account for about 26 percent of the world’s total energy consumption. But, we in America continue to want things-lots of things-and we don’t like anyone else telling us we can’t have what we want-no matter how much energy we have to use.

This holiday season, many are advocating green giving. But, this is nothing new. In fact, we’re riding the third “green wave” since I began my career in the electricity business. Even as green waves have come and gone, Americans have been on a decades-long bender. We’ve gotten drunk on our affluence and we’ve been consuming like there’s no tomorrow. But, why? Why do we think we need all this stuff? Is there something inside us, something intrinsic to being American, or just human beings, which makes us want more?

From McMansions and king-size master bedroom suites, SuperGulp sodas and Grand Slam breakfasts, to Hummers and private jets, we in America-and increasingly, around the world-want more of everything big even as our families shrink in size. Why? Does a bigger house necessarily mean better people live inside? Does driving a Hummer really mean we’re “like nothing else?” Are we using more and bigger to attract and retain possible mates? To warn potential rivals, guard our territory, or conspicuously display our plumage? In this, the 21st Century, are we really that tied to our evolutionary past? We may be. But consider this: Three hundred million Americans tied to an ancient genetic code, or modern cultural one, is one thing; a few billion additional people from around the globe joining us on our drunken-sailor spending spree is quite another.

Meanwhile, the air we breathe is filled with the unintended consequences of the Faustian bargain we call affluence, even as our appetite for stuff keeps on growing and the train of consumption keeps on rolling.

So, what do we do? Use renewable energy? Ideally, yes. But, we must also recognize that solar and wind, in particular, are low density energy sources that require more resources to capture the same amount of beneficial use as high density sources like coal or nuclear. Tell the rest of the world they can’t have what we have? Of course not. We can’t hold back progress or put the genie of globalization back in the bottle. Nor would we want to. Indeed, their progress holds tremendous promise for the future of the human race. But, things clearly can’t continue as they are without paying the price of potentially irreversible planetary impact.

So, technological advancement must also be accompanied by a new way of thinking about how we live. We need a new psychology of consumption. For the last 50 years, America has been the cultural role model for the world. We’ve exported our music, movie stars, TV shows, fast food, and soft drinks. Now it’s time to change our cultural tune. Instead of exporting lifestyles of the rich, famous, and acquisitive, we need a Corps of Ordinary Ambassadors that embody a new American sensibility–and responsibility–about consumption.

A new idea-Think: Less!-can shift the cultural conversation and pay long-term dividends for our planet. We have to stop believing that consuming less is a sacrifice. Instead, we should think of it as a form of philanthropy-a gift we willingly give to ensure the health and well-being of our planet.

Thinking “less” is a tall order, however. Our economy, our jobs, and our culture are all infused with the more, more, more mentality. Although we must eradicate this cultural DNA, if that’s what it is, we must also manage the economic impact on job dislocation and disruption by investing in green jobs and building an efficiency-driven, green industrial complex.

Only a new psychology of consumption will prevent us from repeating the failures of the past. Unless Think: Less! is integrated into a person’s ethical and moral fabric, virtually all initiatives are doomed to failure by the indignant accusations of hypocrisy, the sheer weariness of sacrifice, the inertia and anger brought on by guilt, or the vicious cycle of rising and falling energy prices that inevitably leads to a loss of interest in conservation.

Think: Less! is not a solution to all the world’s environmental problems. It can, however, reflect a psychological and cultural inflection point. In order for each of us to change our footprint on the outside, we have to change our imprint on the inside. If three hundred million consumers can lead the charge, maybe the other few billion will follow. It’s happened before.

Want to reduce your carbon footprint? Ask your utility for a smart or time-of-use meter.

 

 

One of the biggest challenges in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is to link all our activities to electricity use. Electricity generation is one of the three principal sources of GHG (autos/transportation and deforestation/agriculture being the other two). We have to realize that we don’t just consume electricity when the AC/heater is running to keep the inside temperature comfortable, or when we’ve got every light on in the house with the stereo playing in one room, the TV in another, and the microwave popping popcorn in another. We use electricity every time we buy or discard something that was grown, sewn, or manufactured with the assistance of electricity—which is just about everything! So if we are serious about reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), then we need to be serious about how we use electricity. In other words, we need to use it more efficiently and we need to use less of it.

But how do we know how much electricity we are using? Besides the myriad carbon calculators available on the web, there is a new way to monitor your electricity use at your home or business. The technology is called a smart meter and, although it is not widely available yet, it is most certainly coming to a utility near you sooner rather than later.

The idea is that a smart meter installed in your home or business will track exactly how much electricity you are using each hour. Your utility will then be able to tell you how much the electricity cost during each hour (wholesale electricity prices change constantly in reaction to changes in demand), and you can then decide how to use the appliances in your house to help reduce electricity use, lower your electric bill, and, subsequently, reduce GHG emissions.

Smart meters will help you see how much electricity you are using and help you determine, for instance, whether you need to upgrade to more energy efficient appliances or use your appliances less often or at low-demand periods in the day. For instance, you can choose to run your dishwashers or clothes dryers in the middle of the night, when demand for electricity is low and so price is low, instead of the middle of the afternoon, when demand is high and prices are high.

While smart meters aren’t available for most consumers right now, many utilities already offer time-of-use metering. With time-of-use metering, energy used during peak times will cost you more than energy used at off-peak times. Your meter will allow the utility to monitor not only how much electricity you use each month, but when you used it—and then, they’ll charge you based on time-of-use rates. The time-of-use meter puts you in control of your energy use, enables you to save money, and allows you to see how your own peak energy use affects pricing in the overall system. Understanding how patterns of energy use affect electricity markets will make us all better, more responsible energy consumers. Simply call your PUC or your utility to find out if this program is offered in your area.

Think: Less! because consumption matters!

Do you turn on the tap expecting clean water? Want to fill your tank at the gas station? Get cash at the ATM? Check your email? Want cold milk with your cookies? Need an X-ray for a broken bone? Fly to an exotic vacation spot? Depend on Homeland Security to keep us safe?

If so, our electricity infrastructure isn’t someone else’s problem: it’s yours.

Electricity is fundamental to our modern way of life…so fundamental that we only notice it when its not there. When the power goes out, what else stops working?

The answer: everything. Water purification systems stop working. Refrigerated food rots. AC, heating, telephones, TV, internet, banks, hospitals, gas stations, elevators, mass transit systems—everything grinds to a halt when the power goes out.

Because our electricity system supports and enables our modern way of life, a lot is at stake when the power goes down and the lights go out. Yet, generating electricity contributes to global warming.

Today, America is at a turning point. Demand for power is increasing. And, as our economy grows, electricity demand also grows. But it’s not just our economy that’s growing. The largest increases in greenhouse gas emissions come from developing countries like India and China. Their economic progress means more electricity generated and more global warming gases pumped into the atmosphere.

As population grows and economies around the world expand and modernize, our electricity consumption will grow exponentially–and so will our greenhouse gas emissions. Something’s got to give.

So what can we do?

What does Think: Less! really mean?