Does saving energy actually lead to using more of it? Sounds counter-intuitive, but last week analysts for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce World Money report released a study which suggests that that might be the case.
Going back as far as the 19th century, when energy saving inventions like the Bessemer method of making steel actually led to increases in steel production that outstripped any energy saving, the report suggests the energy efficiencies are counter balanced by greater consumption that wipe out all savings. The more fuel efficient automobiles that were produced following the energy crunch of the 1970s led to a short term decrease in energy consumption, they point out, but 30 years down the road, the shift to gas guzzling SUVs and light trucks has resulted in more gasoline being used than ever. (One amazing statistic: the report says the light trucks are now the “vehicle of choice” for American families.)
Other incentives must be found to keep people from squandering any energy efficiencies industry might come up with, the report says. Easier said than done voluntarily. Are we going to have to undergo a fundamental shift in our economic paradigm so that frugal becomes fashionable? Or will we have to wait until we need gas rationing to take the problem out of our hands?
For a reminder of what the 1970s were like, visit the Canadian Centre for Architecture’s new show Sorry Out of Gas, which looks at the crisis and how architects responded.
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5 comments:
Also consider the development of various labor saving devices in the home. E.G.: a clothes washer. The process was automated to save time. Instead the standard of cleanliness increased seven fold or more as people moved from changing their clothes once a week to once a day. Buckminster Fuller thought this was a good thing because we kept doing more with less.
On the other hand, I am currently reading about Meso-American milpas. These fields produce for thousands of years with incredible diversity because they are filled with a multitude of plant varieties: maize, beans, squash, avocados, and so forth. It wouldn't work on a modern factory farm because that requires great steppes of wheat, or soy, or hemp. But it does offer us a different vision of how we might farm once we accept that peak oil is here.
Many things to think about.
--ml
You're right about washing machines, and the same thing goes for fitted sheets. My mother rotated sheets: the top on went on the bottom after a week. Try doing that with what's available now.
Also, I suspect you must be reading Charles C. Mann's 1491. Excellent book!
Mary
Yep. But I was also thinking of a book I read in the Eighties called either "Home", or "The Idea of Home" which discussed the history of residence architecture from the cave to the condo. I believe that,s where
I got the idea about Washing machines. Frustrating I can't recall the authors name. Last I heard he taught at a college in Pennsylvania.
--ml
It's Witold Rybczynski. He used to teach at McGill, and now is at the Wharton School of Business in urban studies or some such. Wrote a very intereting novelized biography of Frederick Law Olmsted too.
M
Thank you! That is exactly right.
--ml
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