Krull said:
We are resouceful in the most insane way!
Yet there have been attempts all along to anticipate problems and begin working out solutions in advance. Nowhere is this more evident that in the field of renewable energy and energy conservation.
(see the crew moving my soapbox into position - scrunch, scrape, bonk)
In 1978 I made a point of moving to Los Alamos National Laboratory because, believe it or not, they had the best solar energy program in the nation and, perhaps, the world. What developed at Los Alamos was the subtle science/art of passive solar design. This low tech approach to energy efficiency in buildings involved an integrated approach to design in which the heating/cooling system became an integral part of the building rather than a high tech add on provided in the final stages. A passive solar system performs its magic without the aid of pumps, blowers, compressors, or furnaces.
Los Alamos identified several distinct generic categories of passive solar design (Trombe wall, direct gain, attached sunspace, thermosiphon) and developed quantitative design tools for optimizing their design parameters and performance as functions of local climatic conditions. A design that works well in Los Alamos is not necessarily best for Rapid City - designs were climate specific. During the 1980s a passive solar industry sprang up in Northern New Mexico and began spreading swiftly to other parts of the country. State and federal tax credits became available to encourage energy efficient construction.
But we were reviled by the big oil and gas interests, and when Ronald Regan came to power and made James Watt (Watt, me worry?) secretary of the Interior, the whole industry was progressively shut down. The program at Los Alamos was killed and we were directed to go back to making bombs. Tax credits for energy efficiency were squashed, an a nascent passive solar industry was suffocated in the cradle.
How good was passive solar? When I built my own house in Los Alamos, I used the design principles that had been developed for direct gain structures. We can cruise through the winter (average low in December and January is about 18 F and the record low for the same period is -18 F) without backup heat. There are associated life style changes. I no longer wear shorts and tank tops year round indoors as I did in California. During winter evenings I'm more likely to wear a good cotton or pile sweatsuit. One year, my wife and I monitored indoor temperature, and the coldest it ever got was 60 F, and that was during the time we were comfortably snoozing in bed under a couple of good quilts.
The moral to this story (drum roll) is that special interests are behind much of the grief we experience in this country. Vote for independent leaders in whatever party you can find them and we will all be miles ahead.:thumbup:
Instant gratification is the bane of mankind.