January 6, 2012 was a day when a personal epiphany emerged.
Energy Conservation Sucks.
The other day, during lunch, a much respected friend (whose wife drives a Prius) made the comment that “the best way to produce energy is to conserve energy.” My first impulse was to agree – then for some reason it occurred to me that all of us have been soaking in this marinade of “conservation” for so long it has seeped into our brains, altered our manner of thinking and created a new surrealistic normal. Of course any conscientious person would adopt the conservation mantra because it is obviously “the right thing to do.” But for some reason, I began to feel anger – not at my friend, but at myself for having allowed this conservation smoke screen to conveniently obscure the real issue. FACT: Humans continue to consume one-time-only reserves of Ancient Sunlight (fossil energy) with no intention of ever paying it back for future generations.
Let’s step off the Planet for a moment and look back. From a distance, it appears we have allowed ourselves to be manipulated by an emperor that first taught us there is nothing fundamentally wrong with genocide in general, and is now trying to convince us that by adopting personal “conservation” practices we can reduce our killing rate by at least 10-20 % – and we all agree that’s a good thing. After all who can argue that buying more insulation for our homes, buying new energy efficient appliances, buying new light bulbs, buying new cars with better gas mileage are not good things? The question becomes, “Good for whom?”
It occurred to me that energy conservation practices are good BUT only when stated truthfully. Suggesting that I change out my 19th century Edison era incandescent light bulb with a 21st century LED is a good thing IF in the same sentence, without even a mental comma, the suggestion goes on to say that this conservation action must also be accompanied by a meaningful effort on my part to transition to a sustainable energy source for the energy that I continue to consume – the 90%. If the only things I do are replacing my light bulbs, buying EnergyStar appliances, and buying a hybrid car, then I am only prolonging the killing, stretching the genocide out for a longer period of time, and hoping that some magic (other than changing my own behavior) will occur to fix the real problem. The real problem is my unsustainable behavior. A “10 % less” unsustainable behavior is still unsustainable behavior – it just can go on for 10% longer.
Conservation challenges allow me to focus on the 10-20% of my behavior related to energy “savings” (and feel good about it) rather than on the 80-90 % of my ongoing behavior where I continue to consume non-renewable energy (and would just feel bad about it). How convenient for me and our profit-oriented energy sector. How tragic for Planet Earth, Humanity and our collective potential for evolving consciousness.
I know that the only ethical option is not “to conserve energy” but rather “to transition to sustainable energy sources.” I know the consumption of any more fossil fuel – one more lump of coal, one more drop of oil, one more gallon of gasoline, one more cubic foot of natural gas – is unethical and not even a physically viable option for more than another 100-150 years. I know the transition away from fossil energy is inevitable for a conscious species that plans to inhabit this planet for another 500 million years or more. What am I waiting for? Harvesting sunlight, wind, geothermal, etc are the only sustainable options for meeting my energy needs.
Sorry, our current emperor has no clothes and “Conservation” sucks.
(Seems like I’m running out of excuses for not transitioning to an electric car or plug-in hybrid that can run off the energy from our solar PV panels.)
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