Things seem to sell better today if they are Green. Not like Kermit, but environmentally sound. Cars, houses, toilet paper. We buy it because its green and therefore we are doing something for the environment.
Parking is moving that way, too. How many systems in your garage can be justified, wholly or partially, because they are “green?” Changing light bulbs to Florescent. Using AVI at the entrance and exit so cars spend less time waiting and lower the C0 levels, thus lowering the electricity costs for running fans? How bout wiring the place so electrical vehicles can be charged?
Does the garage have Photoelectric cells on the roof to generate power? How about a design so it’s cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter? Where was the steel bought –is it recycled? How bout the concrete? Are there vines on the outside, tress surrounding, grass on the roof where the football team practices? DO you recycle the rain runoff?
Of course all these things are great – and maybe they even help a bit. However we are very conditioned to them so we accept them on face value. Now we find out that cities and universities in particular are looking for green justification so the Feds will supply more money.
The thing to remember that these are like those balloon toys, if you squeeze here, something pops out over there.
Electric cars are great – but you have to generate the electricity somewhere. Think of all the power plants we would need if 100 million cars needed to be charged every night. Of course the batteries that run them cause death and destruction in entire regions in China, but that’s ok since it’s over there and not over here.
We replace incandescent bulbs with florescent, and then we have a disposal problem and need a hazmat suit if we break one of the cute little curly things. Of course, don’t even talk about the way your face looks in the mirror if you use those bulbs in your bathroom.
Ethanol has been a great example of the push pull balloon affect. We use corn to make it and then poorer countries that eat corn stave because we take it off the market and the price goes sky high. Of course we then find it takes more energy and creates more pollution to make a gallon of the stuff that we save when we burn it.
My problem is that “green” has become so political that we can’t make reasonable decisions about it. It is, it is important, therefore we jump through hoops.
By the way, PT is printed on recycled paper with vegetable inks, on recycled pressed that are run by piezoelectric generators and delivered in pollution free electric vehicles. You wish…
JVH
