Section 21. Why Not Just Have Less? | |
Slide A, Why Not Just Have Less?Deciding that we have to 'have less' leads us to some interesting conclusions. For example, if we have to use more renewable energy then building more capacity today, when we're still in the 'more' economy, won't work – it just adds to consumption. We know 'how to do' renewable energy. What we don't know how to do is use dramatically less energy because for the last 50 years our national policy has been specifically targeted to have more. For this reason we shouldn't be trying to switch to renewable energy as a first step because, as they have to work within our current mass-consumption system, they might not work well later. For example, many academics believe that we should decentralise energy use, which means moving away from using the national grid as the main means of electricity supply – in which case what do we do with the large wind farms now being developed in the remotest parts of Wales and Scotland? What must lead our descent towards a much lower level of energy and resource use is not more of something different. We must directly cut consumption by a very large amount before we start supplanting one type of non-renewable energy resource (oil, gas, coal and nuclear) with a renewable one. That's difficult for the current system to comprehend, not only because it means politicians must, for the first time since the Second World War, offer people less, but also because the debt and value of resources within the current system is related to future growth. Terminating the concept of growth will therefore require that we abandon many of the recent notions of what affluence consists of. Today, compared to fifty years ago, we have replaced the need for practical skill, in areas such as manufacturing or producing and cooking our food, with the use of large quantities of cheap energy. Now that this cheap energy is no longer available our first step must be to recover those skills that we have lost since the time of our grandparents. Slide B, Why Not Just Have Less?Today the general idea of 'being green' is that we buy more gadgets: light bulbs, household appliances, etc. This is because within our current system we associate more with improvement. Let's take a different approach – less. In the average home we get energy from a number of sources – mostly natural gas, but also electricity, oil and coal. However, irrespective of what source the energy comes from, we have very specific uses for energy in the home: About three-fifths of home energy goes into space heating – heating the air spaces in the home – and much of this demand is just for three to four months of the year. After this the largest use of energy is for water heating, which takes about a quarter of household energy demand. Next, for those devices which can only use it, is electricity. Finally we have 'high grade heat', which means 'very hot', which is used for cooking. We are told to turn-off standby devices. These are 10% of electricity consumption, which is about 12% of household demand, so that's only 1.2%. Lighting is a third to a half of electricity use, which is about 4% to 6% of total consumption. So low energy light bulbs are only going to save 3% to 4% of energy demand. A solar hot water system will produce about half the annual hot water demand – about 12% of total consumption. A new gas boiler might save 20% to 25% of consumption, which is about 15% to 20% of the total. Let's take a different approach. Let's turn down the space heating thermostat from the average 21°C to 22°C to an average 16°C – which means 18°C in the morning/evening and off at night. Then let's turn down the hot water from the factory default setting of 65°C to 70°C to roughly 55°C. Just these two steps on their own save almost 50% of household energy consumption for the investment of just a small twist of your wrist, and perhaps some new, warmer clothes to wear around the house in the Winter. An approach based on 'Less' can save far more than an approach based upon 'more' – the problem is that if everyone did this the economy would, on paper, crash because people would buy and use much less stuff. Whilst politicians might talk of being green, it's for this reason that they don't ever mean it, or implement policies to achieve it, because it would mean the end of growth economics – if only for a few years. Slide C, Why Not Just Have Less?The Energy Beyond Oil Project doesn't provide simple prescriptions for change. Beyond the general maxim of "use less" we don't have specific plans. Instead we try and help people understand how the world around them works so that they can play an active part in making change within their own lives. The slide above follows on from the previous slide on household energy use. Generally, there are a few hard and fast rules to follow: Get out of debt. Debt is a drag on change. You have to pay the debt, and often this means having a job and a way of living that reinforces the unsustainable patterns of living that you follow today. Reducing debt as far as possible reduces your need to have the same job, and so opens up more options for changing/downscaling you life. Energy reduction. You need to use less, the only problem is that the better you get at it the harder it becomes without seriously changing the way you live your life. Gadgets will only take you so far – eventually you have to start cooking your meals from raw food, using less stuff generally, and spend more time living in no/low energy way (e.g, read a book rather than watch a video, or play music rather than listening to it). Energy production/offsetting. The simplest and most worthwhile renewable energy system for the home is hot water. After than, when you factor in the energy you avoid using, it's cooking and growing food. Once you've done the simple (reduction) things you have to go to this stage next if you're going to save more energy and resources. Commodities. Commodities are a problem because we have no real information on how much energy and resource they take to produce. There are some very slapdash calculations – such as for every bin of rubbish you put out the supply chain has put out 75, or that a disposable cell battery takes 500 times more energy to make that it produces during its life. Basically, you just have to find ways of consuming much less, and making what you have last much longer, to reduce your overall consumption. Transport. Transportation is the basis of modern society, from your pattern of living to the supply of the commodities you use. Peak oil will affect transport first, and hardest. For this reason we have to begin to reduce our use of transport immediately. Within our own lives, by walking and cycling locally and using public transport for longer journeys; and collectively, by developing a more localised economy where our needs, and the management of our waste products, are all carried out locally so that the resources cycles can be joined back together. It would be very easy to advocate a lot of measures to reduce your consumption, but there is one important thing that you must change before you embark on any significant change in your lifestyle – your mind. If you can change your outlook first, the patterns of life generally fall into line after that. Background Information
|
 The Energy Beyond
|
|
| |
Limits to Growth
Energy Beyond Oil
Digest of UK Energy Statistics 2008
Energy Consumption in the UK
The Annotated 2-hour EBO Presentation Slides
