Lights out? ( B. Lomborg Pops the Enviros bubble )

When it comes to all things "green", common sense seems to have been abandoned. Our failure to think clearly about such matters would be amusing if the potential consequences were not so serious.

Consider the recent "lights out" campaign that supposedly should energise the world about the problems of climate change by urging citizens in 27 big cities to turn out their lights for an hour...

-Nobody, it seemed, wanted to spoil the party by pointing that the event was immensely futile, that it highlighted a horrible metaphor, or that it caused much higher overall pollution.

-Ironically, the lights-out campaign also implies much greater energy inefficiency and dramatically higher levels of air pollution. When asked to extinguish electric lights, most people around the world would turn to candlelight instead. Candles are cozy and seem oh-so-natural. Yet, when measured by the light they generate, candles are almost 100 times less efficient than incandescent light bulbs, and more than 300 times less efficient than fluorescent lights.

- For example, the recent breakup of a massive glacier in the Antarctic supposedly proves the mounting effects of global warming. But we don't hear that the area was ice-free, possibly just some 400 years ago, without the help of global warming. We don't hear that the Wilkins glacier makes up less than 0.01% of Antarctica. Nor do we hear that the Antarctic is experiencing record sea ice coverage since satellite measurements began.

Only greedy idiots fret about “raising public awareness”, because they see that as more important than actually doing anything practical.

If you want to get practical, then don’t present such ideas as “saving the world”, because that is hooey, the world doesn’t need “saving”. Instead, show people how to save money.

Saving money is practical. Saving money is good. Especially when it also gets you something out of the deal besides just saving money. And if it helps the environment, then great.

For example, in the desert southwest, a/c bills in summer can be enormous, because of the huge energy demands. There are two, practical, common sense ways around this problem that save a ton of money, and energy, as well.

The first is the swamp cooler. Mechanically simple, when the temperature is high and the humidity is low, they are very efficient. They work in about two of the three summer months, and can drop cooling bills hundreds of dollars.

The second idea, and far less used, is a solar only powered portable a/c for home crawlspaces. In summer, such crawlspaces can easily reach 150 degree. But if a small, portable a/c run on solar cells can lower that temperature to a mere 100 degrees, it takes an incredible load off the main house a/c.

Importantly, it doesn’t make the crawlspace cool, just cooler. But this marginal change makes all the difference.

And marginal change is a big principle to saving money.

In a few years, it might be inexpensive enough to bubble oxygen through swimming pools to sterilize them, instead of chlorine. The US Olympic Swimming Team has long done this.

Again, a marginal, money saving idea that adds up over time.

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