Category — ENERGY

When I am able to blank out the last thirty five years, during which I have continuously despised and fought against the automobile (even when I owned one myself…yes, I’m talking about that rattling death-trap of a 1967 Ford Falcon!), when I can forget all that, it does my heart good to hear people talking about Ecocities.   Richard Register has a decent column in Foreign Policy in Focus this week, advocating for more sustainable cities built around better transit systems and less automobile traffic.  His points are well taken and straightforward, building upon his books on the subject (from 2001 and 2006):

• Switch to a pedestrian and transit-oriented infrastructure, built around compact centers designed for pedestrians and transit;
• Roll back sprawl development while vigorously restoring nature and agriculture;
• Integrate renewable energy systems while using non-toxic materials and technologies and promoting recycling.

Which he follows immediately by pointing out the major obstacles to achieving this dream:

A major difficulty in moving toward ecocities is that cars have influenced urban design for 100 years. Many of us caught in this infrastructure find it extremely difficult to get around in anything but the car. The distances are just too great for bicycles, the densities just too low to allow efficient, affordable transit.

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Isn’t it about time we moved beyond the idiotic “central heating” concept and kicked our energy habit?   But how, you might ask, do we get this 100 quadrillion BTU monkey off our back?  The answer, as ridiculous as it sounds, is to simply build better homes, and used efficient heat exchange.   Really, that’s it!   In Germany they are already doing this, building passive heat homes, with highly efficient air flow heat exchangers, and hermetically sealed window and door edges.   The technology isn’t new, but it does rely on (a) good engineering, and (b) good construction techniques.

The American style of building — some sheets of Tyvek slapped on plywood and stud frames, thrown together by a couple of guys with nailguns — is NOT going to cut it!   What we do need is intelligent manufacture of super-efficient modular windows and doors, that can be mounted into highly insulated walls.   Why not put the laid-off crews of Republic Windows back to work, or even re-tool the auto-industry to build super-efficient home construction components, instead of gas-guzzling dinosaurs?   That’s what I proposed to Obama on his transition web blog…  not that the idea will ever get to him, but there’s no harm in trying!

For decades (yes, sadly decades) I have been advocating for a heat-exchanger attachement for refridgerators in American homes.  Doesn’t it strike you as INSANE that we pay to heat up the space inside our homes, then we pay AGAIN to chill down another space inside of our homes to store our food?   That has always been an insane idea to me!  Therefore, for anyone who lives in a climate where the temperature outside the home falls below the temperature inside the home, why not put a heat exchanger between the outside and the air pocket surrounding the fridge interior?  A temperature gauge can control when the vents open on the heat exchanger.  Therefore, when the outside temp drops to a cold enough level, the vent opens and automatically pre-cools the air pocket that exists between the fridge interior and its shell, thus saving energy when the freon compressor kicks in.   Duh!  Why not let the cold outside air cool off our fridge compartment, instead of heating it first then paying to cool it down again?  But then, that would be giving logic and energy-efficiency primacy over greed… and we can’t allow THAT to happen, can we?   Or can we!  Yes, we can!

So join me in pushing all of our alternative construction, transportation, & energy ideas to business, industry, finance, government, mom, pop, and Auntie Grizelda.  It’s a crap job, but somebody’s got to pick up the pieces of this “all war, all the time” disaster we call the U.S.A. and fix it.

Arrived in Salem this evening just in time for the conclusion of the Witch’s Cup Bike Race, five hours of whirring tires around Salem Common that enforces a strict no-automobile zone throughout my entire neighborhood! Gotta love it!

You can see a few photos from last year, dubbed as the 1st Annual Witch’s Cup, although I can clearly recall the last big race held here, which was the final leg of the America’s Cup in 2000.

What a pleasure it is to be free of the stinking toxin-buckets for a few hours, with crowds of people standing around and enjoying the evening breeze while they watch the pack of fired-up cyclists taking those low curves in their shiny jerseys. If only people would understand that we can save energy and do these things in our own towns! There is no need to drive like maniacs in every direction in order to send our children to sporting events…really, it is crazy to think that we must all breed Olympians. The fact is that the vast majority of us are breeding donut-eating shopping mall workers, you know… clerks. And more power to them!

Although it is exciting to think about water and soil on Mars, and new horizons for human exploration of space, still we should bring our heads back out of the clouds and face facts: human civilization is a bloody mess! While people in the so-called “advanced” economies continue to suck energy likes pigs at the trough, and while “developing” nations such as China and India are racing to catch up like wild-eyed racecar drivers hyped up on dexadrine, untold billions of people are left starving at the margins… We are at the point of no return, and yet our so-called “leaders” can think of nothing better to do than rape, loot, and pillage whatever they can get their hands on. What is a thinking man or woman to do?

The only thing I can suggest is to ratchet down your own energy footprint, ride a bike, eat locally grown foods, and focus on two key tactics: creating pesticide free & bee friendly habitats, and implementing appropriate technology.

If the human race does nothing but blindly spin its wheels, we will very be soon left with no option but to become scavengers when the unsustainable mess comes tumbling down. Koyanisqaatsi, my friends.

These thoughts occurred to me when I saw an article on rocket stoves. These make a great deal of sense, because they can burn the smallest scraps of fuel and turn them into cooking energy with the lowest exchange of gases and smoke. The use of appropriate technology clearly should not be limited to people who must be resourceful to avoid starvation, and clearly cannot wait for the approval of idiots who continually drive their ridiculous gas-guzzling monsters to WalMart for 20 pound slabs of read meat.

Appropriate technologies need to be tested and used by all of us.

kudos to Mr. Murphy, inventor of the electronic vehicle, eBug!