Well, there seems to have been a spike in readership these last few weeks, which I attribute solely to subject matter: who doesn't want to read about weddings, especially one which unfolded in a, I daresay, unique way? I suspect I may have gotten passed around by people sharing the link with friends, which I love. The more readers, the better, says my ego.
Now I'm trying too figure out how I'm going to drive those newbies and maybe some oldbies away. Understand, it is not my intent to do that; I simply know that my usual subject matter, whatever stuck subject I can rip from my craw, is hardly everyone's cup o' Jasmine Green. What I aim for is to be thought-provoking, but I'm often taken for angry or insulting. Would that I were a good enough writer to get my intended result. Maybe when I grow up.
And, dear reader, rest assured there's almost always plenty stuck in this old craw: the fact that it's still legal for white people to kill black people (That the subject of race never once came up during the Zimmerman trial defies logic, belief, sense and sensibility--hey, that's not a bad band name, or something. A classic case of blind justice?), the fact that so many states are rushing to return abortion rights--and civil rights, that great struggle we're still fighting, what with the recent gutting of the Voting Rights Act ("The country's changed," says Injustice Clarence "Uncle" Thomas. Now there's the old Mark....)--to, oh, 1958. It feels like the last gasp of the white guys, trying to get as much stuff set up the way they (We? Truth in advertising: I'm an Old White Guy) like it as they can before we're totally overrun by brown, black, and yellow. And then all Hell will break loose.
And speaking of Hell, how 'bout the weather this summer, huh? Steamin'! 'Cause it's not the heat, it's the humidity, right? Well, there's certainly a lot of truth in that old saw. So what I'm wantin' to talk about this week is the heat, or rather our increasingly desperate attempts to escape it, with Air Conditioning. Probably even you regular readers can't believe that I'm gonna argue against the evils of AC, can you?
Many of you know that I'm a big fan of The Week (remember magazines?), a great source for synopses of articles from around the world that deal with issues from, well, around the world, each week. It's My Weekly Reader for (nominal, at least) grownups. Each week there's a 350 word or so Op-ed piece from one of the mag's editors. I generally agree with what they say in those brief bits, but in the July 26 edition William Falk has a piece extolling the air conditioner as humanity's greatest invention.
Okay, I'll cop to it: during a wicked hot spell, when I walk into a bank or grocery store or some other place that has AC blasting all day, I dig it. It's a great relief, and makes us all want to linger a little longer there, soaking up all of that coolth before venturing back out into the inferno. And speaking of Infernos, does anyone recall Kevin Smith's film Dogma (the one where Alanis Morrisette plays God)? In that film, the Devil, or his emissary, enters the world through central air.
And I know that there are folks who absolutely need air conditioning, due to various medical conditions; one of my best friends is one of those, as is my soon-to-be 89 year-old aunt. But for most of us? Let's quit the addiction, before it's too late. Because, as even Falk acknowledges, at least sidelong, our reliance on AC sets up a loop of dependency and puts us further along the path to total global catastrophe, a path we're becoming more familiar with, realize it or not (how're the floods, fires, and/or severe storms in your area this summer?). As with auto emissions, demand for new unnecessary goods, rampant consumerism in general, we're just now seeing the beginnings in the most populated countries on Earth, China and India. As they become more affluent (certainly a relative term), they want the same stuff we have--and why not? If we can escape the heat, why shouldn't they be able to?
The thing is, of course, that this sets up a self-perpetuating vicious cycle: the hotter the climate gets, the more we want escape through air conditioning. But the more we buy and use those machines, the more we demand electricity to run them. So we build more electricity-producing facilities, most of which now are coal-fired, and coal is the dirtiest fuel we have--so far. So those plants pump more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, making the planet hotter, increasing the demand for more AC, thus increasing the demand for electricity, and around and around we go.
Interestingly, the same week that Falk's piece ran in The Week, the Sunday Boston Globe (remember newspapers?) had, as the lead story in its "Ideas" section, a piece that examined alternatives to AC. "What can they be?," I can hear you excitedly asking. Well, as in the old days: build smarter (better insulation, open and close windows as needed and effective), site the house to take advantage of shade and prevailing breezes, plant trees that shade your house, wear clothes that make you feel cooler (not talking haute couture, here), don't try to live where most humans aren't supposed to live, and adapt to it, rather than trying to control it. Hang out on your porches in the evenings, chat with your neighbors; don't work in the heat of the day: manana, man. Likelihood of any of this happening, before we absolutely have to do it because of our own actions and stupidity: ZERO.
Anyway, again, please try to remember that I'm not trying to alienate you, but to provoke thought and maybe even discussion. It may be an empty exercise, but we hafta do something to try to alter our apparent fate, don't we?
So, the playlist:
I Love Air Conditioning NRBQ
Humidity Built The Snowman John Prine
Turning Into Randolph Scott (Humid Child) Leo Kottke
As Cool As I Am Dar Williams
Be Cool Joni Mitchell
Bootie Cooler Shuggie Otis
But I Was Cool Karrin Allyson
Can't Be Cool Claudia Schmidt
Cool Blue Stole My Heart Joan Armatrading
Cool Blue Reason Cake
Cool Down Boy Garland Jeffreys
Cool Blues Grant Green
Cool Dry Place Traveling Wilburys
Cool Eyes Horace Silver
Cool Jerk The Capitols
Cool Paradise Ben Sidran
Cool River Maria Muldaur
Mr. Cool The Crusaders
Coolsville Rickie Lee Jones
Cooltide John Martyn
Everything Is Cool John Prine
On The Cool Side Ben Sidran
One Cool Remove Greg Brown
Mr. Cool The Crusaders
Colder Than The Mexican Snow Dirk Hamilton
Cold Sonia Dada
Cold Cold Ground Tom Waits
Cold, Cold, Cold Little Feat
Hot Hot Hot Buster Poindexter
Hot House Emily Remler
Long Hot Summer Days John Hartford
As usual: Tuesday, Noon til Two, 100.1 FM, wool.fm. C'mon along. And come see me at the Wool fundraising Block Party, Saturday, Aug. 17, from 6-11, at The Waypoint Center in Bellows Falls, VT. I'll be tending bar, so if you treat me right, I'll treat you right. Quid Pro Freakin' Quo, baby.
...Find Yerself Another Planet.
I cannot believe I am the first person to comment. Let's just say you have provoked some thoughts. :>)
ReplyDeleteFirst we should consider the irony that a guy from New Hampshire is recommending giving up air conditioning. You could probably give up surfing and grits too.
My brother in Thailand wonders why you spend so much energy on heating your house to a comfortable temperature when all you have to do is heat it enough to keep the pipes from freezing and put on a bunch of warm clothing. After all, it is easy to add clothing - you can only go so far in the other direction. The following link (http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/1/014050/article) studies the energy impact of living in a warm climate versus living in a cold one. The conclusion is that heating is much more energy intensive than cooling. For example, it takes 3.5 times more energy to heat a house in Minneapolis than to cool a house in Miami. This is why Canada is the top energy consuming country per capita in the world. That and all those faraway moose hunting trips, eh?
As for heating and cooling, the more space we have the more energy it takes. So moving to smaller dwellings is what we all should do. The average new home size in the US (which was 1200 square feet in the 1940's) actually peaked in 2007 at 2521 square feet and was at 2392 square feet in 2010, the last year available. (Source: US Census) So maybe the housing crisis had a positive effect on the environment. Still, as Carl Sagan would say, "That's a lot of space."
Since 27% of the world's energy is spent on transportation, we (you) should be moving to a city where things are close by. Then, even if you drive there it doesn't take a lot of energy. And of course more of life's errands can be done by walking.
Living near the coastline moderates the temperature extremes of summer and winter and thus reduces our energy needs. The fresh seafood is just a bonus.
So if we really want to reduce our carbon footprint, we should all be moving to small apartments in a coastal southern city and taking public transportation everywhere. I'll be in the hybrid moving truck right behind you.