Conservation and Energy Independence
There is no cheaper, cleaner source of energy than energy you do not have to produce.
"It is cheaper to save energy than make energy"
Conservation vs. Efficiency
an Allegory
Picture in your mind’s eye a man who needs one bucket of water each day for his family’s needs. See the man walking each day to a public fountain, or well, located at the center of town. The man fills his bucket with water drawn from the public well. But, the man’s bucket has small holes in the bottom, and so by the time the man arrives back home, the bucket is only 25% full. Three fourths of the water leaked out on the way home. So the man walks back to the public well and draws another bucket of water and returns home only to discover that the bucket is again only 25% full. The man has made two trips to the public well and his family has only one half of a bucket of water to show for his effort. The man repeats his walk to the center of town two more times, for a total of four trips to the public well and back, and now he has a full bucket of water at his home for his family to use.
The man’s bucket leaked a total of three buckets of water onto the ground while walking back from the public well four times.
Now imagine that the town is experiencing a drought and all citizens are asked to CONSERVE water. The town’s conservation plan limits each family to two trips to the public well each day, for a total of two buckets of water (one bucket each trip).
Because the man’s bucket leaks so badly, his two trips to the public well only yield one half bucket of water for his family. This is because one and one half buckets of water will be leaked onto the ground during the two return trips from the well.
The man is so distraught that he refuses to walk to the well, feeling that it is not worth the effort. The wife, wanting to keep the family going asks her teenage son to please make the two trips to the well. The son happily agrees to help his family, but before he goes, he carefully examines the bucket and sees the tiny holes in the bottom. The son cleverly devises a plan. He plugs the holes with superglue. The son then walks to the public well where he gets a full bucket of water and returns proudly home without losing a single drop of water.
Because the bucket did not leak, the son only had to make one trip to the well to bring his family a full bucket of water. In that one trip, the son brought home twice the amount of water the father would have brought home using the bucket with holes in the bottom and making two trips to the well.
The man’s bucket leaked a total of three buckets of water onto the ground while walking back from the public well four times.
Now imagine that the town is experiencing a drought and all citizens are asked to CONSERVE water. The town’s conservation plan limits each family to two trips to the public well each day, for a total of two buckets of water (one bucket each trip).
Because the man’s bucket leaks so badly, his two trips to the public well only yield one half bucket of water for his family. This is because one and one half buckets of water will be leaked onto the ground during the two return trips from the well.
The man is so distraught that he refuses to walk to the well, feeling that it is not worth the effort. The wife, wanting to keep the family going asks her teenage son to please make the two trips to the well. The son happily agrees to help his family, but before he goes, he carefully examines the bucket and sees the tiny holes in the bottom. The son cleverly devises a plan. He plugs the holes with superglue. The son then walks to the public well where he gets a full bucket of water and returns proudly home without losing a single drop of water.
Because the bucket did not leak, the son only had to make one trip to the well to bring his family a full bucket of water. In that one trip, the son brought home twice the amount of water the father would have brought home using the bucket with holes in the bottom and making two trips to the well.
Conservation is not the same as efficiency
Energy efficiency means to do more with less. Conservation means to use less, usually by doing less.
Efficiency is achieved by improving technology so less energy is required to get the same or better results. A refrigerator that keeps your food cold with less energy or an automobile that gets better gas mileage without reducing power or performance are examples of advances in efficiency.
Conservation focuses on eliminating or reducing waste and unnecessary redundancy, such as two trips to the store when one trip should have been enough. Car pooling is another example of reducing waste: eliminating the need for two cars when one would be enough. Efforts to reduce waste often result in improving efficiency, so the two concepts can and do overlap.
Efficiency is achieved by improving technology so less energy is required to get the same or better results. A refrigerator that keeps your food cold with less energy or an automobile that gets better gas mileage without reducing power or performance are examples of advances in efficiency.
Conservation focuses on eliminating or reducing waste and unnecessary redundancy, such as two trips to the store when one trip should have been enough. Car pooling is another example of reducing waste: eliminating the need for two cars when one would be enough. Efforts to reduce waste often result in improving efficiency, so the two concepts can and do overlap.
Waste Recycling
How many barrels of oil are dumped into landfills every day in the form of disposable plastic bottles, containers and packaging? One million barrels of oil per day in the USA? Worldwide?
Stop using disposable plastics and start mimicking Nature's recycling system—demand biodegradable containers for your groceries, snacks and drinks.
“At 1,900 times the cost, consumers should expect better.”
Jane Houlihan, an environmental engineer, after tests revealed that leading brands of bottled water turned up a variety of contaminants, including caffeine, fertilizer and the pain reliever acetaminophen, often found in tap water
Jane Houlihan, an environmental engineer, after tests revealed that leading brands of bottled water turned up a variety of contaminants, including caffeine, fertilizer and the pain reliever acetaminophen, often found in tap water
Money is not the only measure of the price we pay for the things we consume. Our waste and over-consumption borrows from the future. When will the price become so high that people will want to apply the “penny saved is a penny earned” principle, and stop wasting so much?
“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Compiled by: Yj Draiman
Compiled by: Yj Draiman
Quoted from other sources
ReplyDeleteAnyone who has ever stood on a beach and looked out into the vast expanse of an ocean knows that there is a lot of water on this planet. In fact, 70 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by water. It may seem like water is all around us, but safe, clean, reliable drinking water is not a cease¬less resource. The problems facing drinking water range from failing infrastructure, to climate change, to insufficient supplies.
Personal Conservation
Preserving our water resources is not a job for water industry professionals alone. We all have a vested interest in ensuring that water remains safe, af¬fordable and available. Therefore, each individual American has a responsibility to monitor and control their water use, There are many simple ways for people to reduce excess water use, lower water bills and protect the environment, espe¬cially in die spring and summer months, Beyond the standard constraints of watering the lawn only when neces¬sary and washing car wisely by using soap and a bucket of water, some steps include: draining water lines to outside faucets, disconnecting hoses, shutting off outdoor water sources during cold weather and running a small trickle of water on whiter nights to prevent pipe from freezing.
Conclusion
Water supply management is an issue that affects us all. It may not be apparent to every citizen today, but with climate change and population shifts transforming the United States, it soon will be. Effective solutions need to be put into place today before we are faced with a water crisis. A focus on careful planning, treatments, innova¬tions and conservation measures will help to create stability for long-term water management. Commitment to keeping water at the top of the list for communities and citizens will better prepare us for whatever the future of water holds.
Compiled by: Yj Draiman
WATER!
ReplyDeleteThe indispensable source of life-without water there would be no industry, no agriculture and, most importantly of all, no life. In dry parts of the world this essential commodity is even more precious. Almost all human actions involve water from taking a shower to reading a newspaper to driving a car or simply eating a sandwich - almost everything we do or touch is somehow related to this precious treasure. We ask that you stop and think how you use water and what you can do to conserve this essential natural resource.
*Water, beliefs and customs,
*Water as a vehicle of the economy,
*Water, source of art and life, irrigation and cultivation.
The people have decided to act to try and develop a real awareness program on the theme of water preservation and distribution in an attempt to help maintain the original purity of rivers and streams.
In many parts of the world water sources and wells are not equally distributed. Water as a source of life can also be at the source of conflict.
Whether we live in India, Iceland or the Atlas… we have always tried to trap and tame water. Dams, pumps, canals, water treatment centers; there are so many different ways to exploit this resource that we often forget how fragile this unique and essential treasure actually is.
Unfortunately, many of the things we do every day can harm our water. That’s why all people and government should be working with municipalities, farmers, business leaders and developers just like you to take action to protect our water and clean it up.
Small changes can make a big difference. This guide outlines practical things we can all do to preserve and protect our water. We all need to be part of the solution.
Concentrated Solar Power, which requires no solar panels at all. It works by concentrating sunlight onto a small pipe using cheap parabolic reflectors. The pipe contains a liquid that’s heated to very high temperatures by the sun and drives a steam boiler that rotates a turbine to generate electricity (much like nuclear power plants, but without the nuclear waste). It’s cheap, low-tech, and far more affordable than solar power. Plus, it can be built in practically any desert, so it doesn’t take up valuable land. As another bonus, when CSP operations are built near the ocean, they can desalinate ocean water as a side effect, providing fresh water for irrigation to grow food. This is the only renewable energy technology I know of that can produce cheap energy, fresh water and crop irrigation all at the same time. Plus, it has no emissions, no toxic chemicals, no nuclear waste and very little environmental impact..
“You can’t escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today” - Abraham Lincoln said it.
“That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest” – Henry David Thoreau.
“To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed” – Theodore Roosevelt.
“When the ‘study of the household’ (ecology) and the ‘management of the household’ (economics) can be merged, and when ethics can be extended to include ‘environmental’ as well as human values, then we can be optimistic about the future of mankind. Accordingly, bringing together these three E’s is the ultimate holism and the great challenge for our future” – Eugene Odum.
Compiled by: Yj Draiman