We have enmeshed ourselves and our businesses and our homes and our towns in interconnected and complex grids of power consumption, power usage and power sources.
There is no solution to reducing our energy footprint other than a systematic piece-by-piece working over of our lives, lifestyles, expectations and energy sources to minimize waste, maximize investment and utilize every last iota of non-fossil fuel based energy that the universe (sun, wind, water and wood) can provide.
This takes place when local businesses convert from diesel to bio-diesel. This takes place when towns take a look at their municipal energy footprint. This takes place when you or your neighbor buys either a hybrid car, a diesel/bio-diesel car, or trades an SUV in for something smaller.
This takes place when homeowners and business owners swap traditional light bulbs and fixtures for compact fluorescents, and it takes place when furnaces and chimneys are properly cleaned and maintained.
When there is plenty to go around (and right now there is still plenty of energy to go around, despite rising prices) it's harder to convince end users of the need to rethink usage and to economize.
It may be easier to convince end users of the need to reduce the consequences of our unfettered energy usage. There are many nay-sayers who scoff at the notion of global warming and the idea that if it is occurring, it is being caused by humans.
But only this week, a NASA-funded study was released which projects that the Arctic will be ice free by 2040 - or earlier. Researchers calculated that the Arctic ice cap is melting so fast that the North Pole will become an open sea within 30 years. In the last 25 years the Arctic ice cap has receded 25 percent. That depletion is expected to accelerate until about 2020 when it will increase significantly.
Reducing carbon dioxide emissions will slow the loss of ice caps - and we already know what we have to do to reduce our emissions - even if our approach is piecemeal.
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