Extreme weather in a big world with bad energy habits

 

about 8 a.m. on February 17, 2021: cold dashboard temperature

Reversing from the garage the car's thermometer on the dashboard showed 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 3.8 Celsius) but within a couple of minutes driving to work the number fell little by little until stopping at negative five degrees (minus 20.5 Celsius). That is cold enough for one's breath to land on eyelashes and freeze almost instantly, producing a decidedly unpleasant sensation.

Somewhere it is written that the USA population comprises something like 5% of the planet's humans, but that those citizens (and the undocumented people, as well) consume about 20 or 25% of the annual energy budget around the world. And of those 5% of Earthlings the wealthiest 10% of the richness pyramid probably account for an outsized part of the fuel consumed and carbon footprint produced each day and cumulatively for each year: luxury services and goods tend to require more energy than items of an ordinary status, or indeed by comparison to the alternative of doing without such luxuries all together.

Therefore, so long as old habits persist for transportation, gift-giving, leisure pursuits, plug-in conveniences, and so on, the disproportionate spoiling of water, air, and habitats will go on until no more remains. Let us hope that enough people see the insanity and injustice; and that peer pressure, government carrots and sticks (incentives and disincentives) can transition the consuming public to think twice before making a purchase, flicking on an electrical switch, or jumping in the car for little or no reason other than boredom or aimlessness. Such a transformed mentality would lead to fewer single-use (disposable) products, fewer one-stop trips (instead combining errands and appointments and commuting), and less landfill discarding of uneaten food or unloved chattels.

Summer's final weeks - product life cycle: use and discard, repeat.

Summer arrived late and seems to be finishing early in west Michigan. The big yellow school buses are once more running in the morning and again in the afternoon. Some workers are setting aside sandals and short-sleeve shirts and donning their cool weather clothing. For the coldest mornings, outerwear is coming out of storage again, too. Meanwhile the plants and wrapping up their growing season and offering the fruits and vegetables in the harvest time. Seldom seen birds are just passing through on their cold season migration. A few people come to the fish ladder to see the migrating fish homing in on their nesting places upstream; other people want to eat the fish. (click photo for larger view)

two dozen fishers near the Grand River fish ladder angling for steelhead trout in migration

Insects, too, are getting ready for the shift from hot days to cool nights and temperate daytime temperatures. Some will escape from the killing frost by moving south; others hibernate or their eggs and larvae remain dormant until the Earth is ready for them to emerge again in the spring.

katydid collecting sunlight on dark windshield ahead of the cold season

Meanwhile, in the society of 2019 humans the habit of consuming and discarding continues. While a few people hoard things with a view to repurposing them, many more simply dispose of the unwanted item, as in this photo of an inflatable water toy. As a friend once remarked about solid-waste landfills around the country: these are not places of final disposition, but rather "long-term storage solutions" that relocate unwanted purchases, gifts, debris and refuse. The things may be "out of sight & out of mind" for the person who sets out a bag or bin for the collection service, but the cumulative clutter does not vanish in any final sense, it just moves from the consumer's curb to the city's pyramid of rubbish.

soon after the Labor Day weekend this yellow-top recycle bin shows water toy at end of its lifecycle

Tracing the lifecycle of this water toy, it began with an idea, then once a decision to produce and distribute the thing was made the next step was to design it (with or without reference to competing products already for sale), then come up with production lines of tools and workers and inputs (plastic or vinyl raw materials for molding). The stream of items coming out of the production site then needs to be packaged, promoted, distributed, and all parties involved need to be paid. Once a consumer makes a decision to own this one instead of the competing ones, then there is the packaging to dispose of, the owner's manual to study or download (for things more complicated than inflatable toys), the storage of the thing when not in use, and once no longer required, there is the matter of loaning, gifting, or discarding the thing, as illustrated here. A similar sequence can be described for food, clothing, cars, electronic products, and so on: use and discard, buy anew and discard.

Eventually there will be no place to put discarded solid-waste. When that day comes, but hopefully long before, people will find ways to extract all possible value from unwanted materials in order to reduce, reuse, or recycle unwanted things of one's own, or of one's neighbor.