Its Jam Band Friday – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I1bBcda4Ko

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Why is that. Because the WHOLE world is polluted. Most of these places didn’t even make the last two lists.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-19/americas-28-most-polluted-places/

Our Most Polluted States

by The Daily Beast Info

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Greenpeace marine biologist Paul Horsman shows globs of oil on a jetti at the mouth of the Mississippi River on May 17, 2010. (John Moore / Getty Images) As the EPA and BP fight over the Gulf oil spill cleanup, the Daily Beast crunches the numbers and ranks the most contaminated sites in the nation.

The BP oil rig explosion has led to untold millions in lost income for people who make their living from the Gulf, but toxic hazards are an everyday occurrence: The EPA estimates that there are 3,500 chemical spills each year, requiring $260 million to clean.

Above those, however, are the Superfund sites—places that have sustained major, long-term damage, necessitating years of cleanup. Established in 1980 after a series of toxic disasters, including the infamous Love Canal district of Niagara Falls, which turned the neighborhood into a virtual ghost town, Superfund has largely succeeded in centralizing hazardous waste cleanup and holding responsible parties financially accountable.

The BP fiasco—both a natural and human disaster—got us thinking: what are today’s most polluted toxic dumping grounds? To figure it out, we examined all available Superfund data from the Environmental Protection Agency. We filtered the results, focusing on sites that remain dangerous for human exposure and sites that have dangerous ground water. And then we ranked them using the following criteria:

· Toxicity per acre: The number of instances of each toxin, multiplied by the severity of each toxin, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry, and divided by the acreage of the site.

· Toxicity per population: To determine potential human exposure we took the number of instances of each toxin, multiplied by the severity of each toxin, and divided by the population within one mile of the site. (The EPA gives a population range, and we used the higher number for this calculation.)

Since toxicity per acre is a more concrete statistic than potential human exposure (one can live near a toxic site and avoid contact), we weighted the former three times the impact of the latter. An important note: The human exposure element does not measure exposure levels, but rather indicates that the EPA believes there is a reasonable expectation that people may be exposed to contamination—exactly what the Superfund teams spend their time trying to alleviate.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2maAPVOZlkc&feature=fvw

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Acres: 2
Population: 10,000
Toxic chemicals: 34

History: From 1949 to 1991 Fletcher’s Paint Works operated a retail store and storage facility in this small New Hampshire town along the Souhegan River. In 1982 New Hampshire officials found leaking and open drums of paint chemicals in the storage area. Soil and groundwater around the site was later found contaminated with arsenic, lead, PCBs, and a slew of other nasty chemicals. The nearby Keyes Municipal Water Supply Well was shut down in the early 1980s after it was found contaminated by volatile organic compounds—gases emitted from paint and other household supplies. Cleanup began in 1988 and continues today. The EPA has tested homes in the area for gases seeping from soil into basements, with no health risks found in the homes and another round of testing due for June 2010. The main concern now is that fish in the Souhegan contain PCBs, and that the EPA has found evidence of people fishing in the river.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtCJp1h45gA&feature=related

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#2, Haverford, Pennsylvania:
Havertown PCP

Acres: 15
Population: 50,000
Toxic chemicals: 59

History: Getting rid of toxic waste used to be so simple. National Wood Preservers, which treated wood on the site from 1947 to 1963, would take their liquid waste lined with pentachlorophenols (PCPs) to a well, and dump it down. Or they would toss the PCP-laden liquid onto the ground. A nearby stream was contaminated, though residents living within a mile of the site don’t use it for drinking water. In 1992 the EPA removed 97,000 tons of liquid waste, and 60 tons of sludge from the site. The EPA is armed with $4.2 million from the Recovery Act to finish the final cleanup phase, which includes removing contaminated soil from residential property and public spaces.

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There is 2. For the rest read the article. HAPPY LABOR DAY everyone. More next week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX0cMoOiIMQ&feature=related

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It’s Jam Band Friday – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezHlu9rUAW0

So here is the governments thought for you renters out there.

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=products.es_at_home_tips_renters10

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http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/apartments/index.cfm/mytopic=10010

Apartments

Simple energy conservation measures can lower your utility bills while increasing the comfort of your apartment. Although your landlord or management company is ultimately responsible for your building’s energy efficiency, you make dozens of energy decisions every day.

Electricity

Many ways for cutting electricity costs in houses also apply to apartments. See our section on reducing electricity use for ways to lower these costs.

Heating and Cooling

Here are some ways to reduce your heating and cooling costs. They can also make your apartment more comfortable. You might need your landlord’s or management company’s permission for some of the suggestions.

• Caulk and weatherstrip windows and exterior doors.
• Carefully select, install, and use window treatments or coverings.

Water Heating

If you have your own water heater in your apartment, see our section on energy-efficient water heating. If you don’t have your own water heater, you can still save energy by reducing your hot water use. You may need your landlord’s or management company’s permission for some of these energy conservation measures.

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More next week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysiT0P6OtvU&feature=related

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It’s Jam Band Friday..Yippe…Yahoo – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EapcVSB7U4U

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http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/tips/index.html

www.consumerenergycenter.org / tips CONSUMER TIPS to $AVE ENERGY AND MONEY Energy Conservation and Energy Efficiency are two sides of the same coin. Most people think they mean the same thing, but they don’t. Energy conservation means reducing the level of energy use by turning down a thermostat, or turning off a light, or turning up the temperature of your refrigerator. Energy efficiency means getting the same job done while using less energy. Efficiency is usually done by replacing an older, less efficient appliance with a new one. In this section, you’ll find both energy conservation and efficiency tips for your home, office, school, car or truck, and other areas. You’ll learn how to get your home ready for summer or winter. You’ll learn how to be prepared in case the power goes out. And you’ll learn some interesting facts about energy. SUMMERTIME TIPS Keeping Yourself and Others Cool – Tips for Saving Lives During High Heat Staying Cool in the Kitchen – Tips & Summertime Recipes Getting Your Home Ready for Summer Summertime Home Energy Tips If the Lights Go Out in Your Home in the Summer Summertime Energy Tips for Office & Small Business Energy Tips In Spanish flexibilidad en su poder Being Prepared for Power Outages in Your Home Portable Electric Generator Safety in Your Home WINTERTIME TIPS Getting Your Home Ready for Winter Winter Time Home Energy Tips If the Lights Go Out in Your Home in the Winter Winter Holiday Home Energy Tips Wintertime Energy Tips for Office & Small Business Being Prepared If the Lights Go Out in Your Business Energy Commission Process Energy Office – Industry, Agriculture and Water TIPS FOR YOUR SCHOOL Energy Tips for Schools TIPS FOR YOUR VEHICLE Energy Tips for Your Vehicle

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More next week.

He is so good- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSZzvTQiy4w

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In memorium of Richie Hayward one founder of Little Feat It is Jam Band Friday…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FekVR_SC5M

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http://www.ecobuild.co.uk/2010-review.html

Ecobuild 2010 was a huge success with more than 1,000 exhibitors, over 41,000 visitors, and dozens of new attractions, initiatives and special events. Here are just some of the highlights…..

Winner of the Green Shoots Best Innovative Sustainable Construction Product award, Thomas Lipinski of Green Structures, received a cheque for £5,000 from Green Shoots sponsor, Neil Morgan, Lead Technologist – Low Impact Buildings, Technology Strategy Board.

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More next week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns9jGWiF8d0

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It is jam band Friday – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD2zkvE_uQg

Well it has started. The SUN came back on and the nearly 3 year solar “quiet” has ended. The next 11 years could be some of the most fascinating and horrific witnessed since WWII, WWI, or the Civil War here in America. I am not jumping for joy or anything but we are going to get closer to the Sun at the same time and our tip towards the Sun…what we call summer is going to “tip” a little more, so it will probably get hot pretty fast. This isn’t bad for a warm up so to speak…But if you want to close your eyes and pretend it isn’t happening you can’t do better then Kelly Clarkson.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4sJMcgeDe0&feature=related

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http://www.theage.com.au/world/russia-bans-grain-exports-as-drought-consumes-crops-20100806-11ohl.html

Russia bans grain exports as drought consumes crops

ANDREW KRAMER, MOSCOW

August 7, 2010

Heatwave, drought and now the wildfires, like this one in the western region of Ryazan, are the worst in Russia’s modern history. Picture: AFP

RUSSIAN Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has banned all exports of grain after millions of hectares of wheat have withered in a severe drought, driving up prices around the world.

Russia is suffering the worst heatwave since record-keeping began here, more than 130 years ago.

”We need to prevent a rise in domestic food prices, we need to preserve the number of cattle and build up reserves for next year,” Mr Putin said in a meeting broadcast on television. ”As the saying goes: reserves don’t make your pocket heavy.”

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Must take music break.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ7FWZcwotM:}

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The abrupt ban – earlier this week, a deputy agricultural minister had said no such measure would be taken – shows Mr Putin retains the right to marshal state power in defence of Russian interests.

Russia’s emergencies minister has warned that the wildfires raging in the west of the country could release radioactive particles from land contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Sergei Shoygu said laboratories were monitoring a potential release of contaminants in Bryansk region, on the border with Ukraine. The region was sprayed with caesium-137 and strontium-90 after the Chernobyl explosion in 1986.

”In the event of a fire there, radionuclides could rise together with combustion particles, and a new zone of pollution will appear,” he said.

The wheat export ban is widely seen as a move to address rising resentment over the heatwave and the fires.

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Go to the article to read the rest. I can’t go on. More next week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svxP2LjBg_4:}

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It’s jam band friday – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjFaenf1T-Y

I wrote a letter to the editor to the State Journal Register about a scam here in the states Mira-Cool which I have panned here and last years version of it called CoolSurge..They are just outright frauds. These guys are a fraud of a higher order. I first ran into them here:

http://www.rense.com/general9/unveil.htm

New Magnetic-Electric Device
Can Power Home From Near
Free Energy Source

By Penny Robins
The Cairns Post – Northern Queensland, OZ
3-8-1

(Note – ‘Ergon’ refers to the local electricity supplier utility which used to be known as the FNQEB Far North Queensland Electricity Board).

Two Cairns inventors yesterday unveiled a world first commercial machine which can power a house from a permanent, clean, green and virtually free energy source.

The machine, developed by Brinsmead mechanical engineer John Christie and Edge Hil electrician Lou Brits, has an international patent pending and is expected to go on the market for $4000-$5000.

Relying on the attraction and repulsion of internal magnets, the Lutec 1000 operates continually on a pulse-like current 24 hours a day – producing 24 kilowatts of power – once it is kickstarted from a battery source.

The device is more than 500 per cent efficient, compared to a car which is less than 40 per cent efficient and loses power through heat and friction.

No powerlines would be needed to distribute energy from the individual power sources.

There is no heat, harmful emissions or airborne matter in the transmission.

If it were not for the magnets, which have a life of 1300 years, and the battery pack, which has a life of about five years, the machine would be in perpetual motion.

A demonstration of the motor from the carpeted study of Mr Christie’s Brinsmead home revealed the device in all its glory – bigger than the average cyclone back-up generator but much less noisy.

M Christie and Mr Brits have been tinkering together on the motor in their spare time since they met in a Sheridan St cafe five years ago and began sharing ideas.

One and a half years ago, the design was perfected and the pair lodged a patent with Brisbane patent attorneys Griffith Hack.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buQpcpQqdKo&feature=related

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Here is their website but you can see it is “under construction”. I’ll bet.

http://www.lutec.com.au/

Worlds leading Independent experts report confirms witnessing many times more electricity being generated
than consumed by Lutec prototypes. Report available for download here.

http://www.lutec.com.au/other/SGS_Report.pdf

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gwXpLpfb3Y&feature=related

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I show the alleged report but it is a PDF file and I don’t have the version that lets me copy stuff. You should read it. It’s a stitch.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWzy-Mwy0ws&feature=related

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As one critic put it:

http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/comment/lutec.htm

Comment and Opinion

Lutec Australia Pty Ltd

Lutec – all the energy that you can eat (13/4/2002)
One of the great nonsenses of pseudoscience that never seems to go away is the perpetual motion machine. They aren’t called that these days, of course, because everyone knows that such things are impossible. The new name is “free energy device”, but the principle is the same. A recent example of this genre is the Lutec 100, a generator which, according to the inventors, is 3000% efficient. The Lutec people once said that they were going to accept the $100,000 challenge from the Australian Skeptics, but for some reason they eventually lost interest. They were awarded the 2001 Bent Spoon Award for their efforts at overthrowing physics. I thought I would see where they were up to in their attempt to solve all the world’s energy problems, so I sent them the following email. I have not yet received a reply, but if I could predict the future I would say that the reply will either be a set of answers to some other questions or some abuse and patronising suggestions that I don’t understand what they are doing.

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More next week

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkCgYwexkG0&feature=related

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It’s Jam Band Friday - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RupUECcyVow

What ever happend to a great innovative idea. In Early 2008 everyone was a twitter about this story. Why?  Because half to one third of the energy we generate is wasted. Then:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GadgetGuide/story?id=4173214&page=1

7 comments

Scientists are developing a new device that could have a profound impact on global energy supplies by converting wasted heat into electricity. It could potentially have an impact on everything from power plants to cell phones, and it came about because of a serendipitous discovery that had eluded scientists for half a century.

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, have found a way to use ordinary silicon to convert heat to electricity. The technique could mean that some day you will be able to recharge your cell phone with electricity produced by your own body heat, and enormous amounts of energy that is now wasted could be recycled.

“We feel that this is a breakthrough,” said Arun Majumdar, a mechanical engineer and materials scientist with joint appointments at the Berkeley lab and UC Berkeley. “I’m very excited about this.”

Astonishingly, Majumdar and his colleagues didn’t set out to achieve what they have done.

“It was serendipitous,” he said. “We never planned for it.”

And perhaps even more surprising, they did it with a material that most scientists thought would never work for this purpose — ordinary silicon, a cheap, abundant material that is the foundation for the multibillion-dollar semiconductor industry.

Majumdar and his fellow researchers, including chemist Peidong Yang, a noted leader in the rapidly growing field of technology at the incredibly small “nano” scale, reported on their work in the Jan. 10 issue of the journal Nature. It’s not clear yet why the device they have created works.

“We don’t have all the answers at this point,” Majumdar said. But laboratory experiments show that it does, indeed, work. At least on a small scale. The device, placed between a hot plate and a cold plate, produced enough electricity to power a light bulb, although they didn’t do that demonstration. Instead, they measured the current flowing from the hot plate toward the cold plate, and it was sufficient to claim success, he said.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PenutnCkyx8&feature=related

or this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAF-cEThNWU&feature=related

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NoW:

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/silicon-heat-cheap-energy-gets-1-million/

‘Silicon + Heat = Cheap Energy’ Gets $1 Million

Exotic waste heat startup Alphabet Energy gets more fun

Alphabet Energy, which says it can make electricity for around $1 a watt out of waste heat in factories or data centers, has raised $1 million from Claremont Creek Ventures and the CalCef Clean Energy Fund.

Waste heat — which is one of our favorites sources of energy here — essentially revolves around capturing heat from engines and machinery and using it to run things like water heaters or converting it into electricity. The U.S. consumes around 100 quads (100 quadrillion BTUs) of energy a year, and 55 to 60 quads get dissipated as waste heat, according to Arun Majumdar, the UC Berkeley professor who came up with a lot of the technology behind Alphabet (he now runs ARPA-E, the advanced projects group inside the Department of Energy). Thus, there is a lot of waste heat out there and it could be cheaper than solar. Alphabet estimates it could be a $200 billion market.

Heat-to-electricity can be accomplished in two ways. Companies such as Recycled Energy Development (RED) and Ormat have successfully retrofitted factories to capture waste heat, but these systems largely rely on mechanical engineering. Heat is captured and then channeled into productive uses. One of RED’s showcase projects — coming next year — is a system at West Virginia Alloys, a silicon manufacturer, that will generate 45 megawatts of electrical power from the waste heat generated by factory operations. The company uses 120 megawatts at the current time, but the waste heat system will effectively allow Alloys to recover about one-third of the power it now buys but wastes. Fuel cells can also be used to harvest waste heat.

Semiconductors could potentially be the next wave for the industry, and this is where Alphabet comes in. Traditional waste heat chips — heat goes in one side, electricity comes out the other — cost around $20 a watt and are made out of bismuth telluride. Alphabet won’t say what its semiconductor is made from, but sources say the chief material is silicon nanowires.

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More next week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nTcDU73gLs&feature=related

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They have made my life a living hell. The skin area around half of my neck is swollen up three times it normal size and I am in pain…So no real post today. Sorry.

It’s Jam Band Friday – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyRshnwExPU

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_fly

Black fly

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A black fly (sometimes called a buffalo gnat, turkey gnat, or white socks) is any member of the family Simuliidae of the Culicomorpha infraorder. They are related to the Ceratopogonidae, Chironomidae, and Thaumaleidae. There are over 1,800 known species of black flies (of which 11 are extinct). Most species belong to the immense genus Simulium. Most black flies gain nourishment by feeding on the blood of other animals, although the males feed mainly on nectar. They are usually small, black or gray, with short legs, and antennae. They are a common nuisance for humans, and many U.S. states have programs to suppress the black fly population. They spread several diseases, including river blindness in Africa (Simulium damnosum and S. neavei) and the Americas (Simulium callidum and S. metallicum in Central America, S. ochraceum in Central and South America)

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More Monday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUZYuWfg7NA

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It’s jam band Friday -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkGE-kNRUN4

In the mid 90s British Petroleum decided to change its image. They “initialized” their name. Up dated their brand by changing their color schemes to yellow and green and they announced that their gas stations would be energy efficient and included solar panels. They infact set up a solar division and I believe make and sell solar panels. All that to cover up for the fact they were one of the most dangerous businesses in the world. So when people say why are you talking about greenwashing now?  It’s because it is a problem that can lead to the oil spew in the gulf.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkLCRMT-sdE&feature=related

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http://sinsofgreenwashing.org/findings/greenwashing-report-2009/

Greenwashing Report 2009

Greenwashing Report 2009 Low-resolution PDF 3.1 MiB

Greenwashing Report 2009 (French) Low-resolution PDF 2.9 MiB Greenwashing Report 2009 High-resolution PDF 9.5 MiB

Some Notable Findings from the 2009 Report…

A NEW Sin has emerged

98% of products committed at least one of the Sins of Greenwashing. Greenwashing is so rampant that a Seventh Sin has emerged.  The Sin of Worshiping False Labels is committed by a product that, through either words or images, gives the impression of third-party endorsement where no such endorsement actually exists.

Kids (Toys and Baby Products), Cosmetics and Cleaning Products

Greenwashing is most common in three household categories: Kids (toys and baby products), Cosmetics (beauty and health), and Cleaning Products.

More products are claiming to be ‘green’

The average number of ‘green’ products per store almost doubled between 2007 and 2008.  Green advertising almost tripled between 2006 and 2008.

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What you say matters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcKdNV2ep7I&feature=related

Oh and these people asked for links:

http://www.solarhotusa.com/

http://www.facebook.com/FoodIndependenceDay

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It’s Jam Band Friday – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZxz0YZzrFs

The problem with this Economist Mentality is that it is ungoverned. Any income issue that constantly rises, crashes under its own weight. Another issue is the dramatic increase in population in the last 100 years. Over all America’s consumption is down in the last 20 years and that is a fact jack. But environmentalists waffle…

http://www.greens.org/s-r/47/47-05.html

The Specter of Jevons’ Paradox

by Jeff Dardozzi

It is an article of faith within the sustainability movement that resource efficiency improvement must be the main response to Peak Oil and Climate Change. The recurring mantra in our culture is that technological silver bullets will save the day. It is widely believed that increased resource efficiencies coupled with widely deployed renewable energy technologies will rescue the earth from catastrophe and salvage Western civilization from ecological and societal collapse. Furthermore, such a strategy will usher in a new relationship with nature that secures her for generations to come. As with most articles of faith, belief in them is a difficult thing to shake even in the face of compelling evidence to the contrary.

In the early eighties, an old debate within economics resurfaced surrounding something called Jevons’ Paradox, or the more descriptive term rebound effect. Many well-known minds, such as Amory Lovins, piped in on the new meaning of this old, obscure argument buried in 19th century classical economics. First coined by the economist W. Stanley Jevons in The Coal Question (1865), the paradox he noted was in regards to coal consumption and efficiency improvements in steam engines: “It is a confusion of ideas to suppose that economical use of fuel is equivalent to diminished consumption. The very contrary is the truth.”

As with most articles of faith, belief in them is a difficult thing to shake even in the face of compelling evidence to the contrary.

…increased efficiency paradoxically leads to increased overall energy consumption.

The devil is in the details

The crux of the argument lies in the fact that when you save money through improvements in efficiencies, such as with gas mileage or heating costs, invariably that savings has two effects. First, it decreases demand for an energy resource, which reduces the price of the resource. This then reveals a new layer of demand that, in turn, increases consumption of that resource. Such behavior can be found most everywhere in the economy. In analyzing homes over the last 50 years we see their energy efficiency improved dramatically but the square footage more than doubled and the number of occupants more than halved. Even though the heat load of today’s homes may be less than that of 50 years ago, the total embodied energy and operational requirements per occupant home is far greater due to size, composition, occupancy and lifestyle – all predicated on resource efficiency improvements.

Word processing is another example of the Paradox at work. Before the advent of personal computers, producing a professional typewritten document was quite arduous, time consuming and expensive. Once computers, printers and networks came onto the scene, there was widespread hype that we would no longer need paper and the “paperless office” was bandied about as one of the great resource conserving aspects of technology. Everyone knows what happened – paper consumption skyrocketed because the cost per word to print plummeted.

The same thing happens with highway improvements. Every increase and improvement made to the carrying capacity of highways invariably leads to an increase in traffic congestion, housing development and maintenance regimes. Efficiency improvements in battery storage technology and the energy efficiency of micro-circuits along with efficiency improvements in production and infrastructure have fueled the explosion in digital technologies, all of which increase demand for energy and resources. The paradox is everywhere.

The second effect resulting from efficiency improvements is that when you save money you usually spend it somewhere else in the system of production, and that translates into increased energy and resource consumption. The worst thing you could do is save it in the fractional reserve banking system where the multiplier effect can compound your savings to recycle it into the economy at 10 times what it would have been if you had just spent the money yourself.

Even those who argue for the “sackcloth and ashes” approach to sustainability through lower consumption, simplicity, and reduced reliance on fossil energy are haunted by Jevons ghost. As the ecological economist Blake Alcott notes in The Sufficiency Strategy: Would Rich-world Frugality Lower Environmental Impact?

However, given global markets and marginal consumers, one person’s doing without enables another to “do with.” In the near run the former consumption of a newly sufficient person can get fully replaced. And given the extent of poverty and the temptations of luxury and prestige consumption, this near run is likely to be longer than the time horizon required for a relevant strategy to stem climate change and the loss of vital species and natural resources.

The claim of reducing material standards voluntarily as a means to reduce environmental impact may be sound at the local or regional level, but in the global marketplace such claims are demonstrably false. As countries like China and India work their way through the late stages of primitive capital accumulation, they are stepping into the consumptive paradigm full force with over two billion consumers anxious to take up any slack. India’s boast of the Tata, the world’s cheapest automobile, and the prospect of a billion new cars on the road by the middle of the century haunt the Western world as the ghosts of Prometheus and Pandora reappear before our eyes.

…China and India…are stepping into the consumptive paradigm full force…

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If they are not saying it is inevitable then they are saying the only way around it is to unplug.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuLaWgbu24M&feature=related

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http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/jevons-paradox.php

Household appliances provide the best example that efficiency gains really do stick. Take refrigerators (which can use as much as 14 percent of a household’s total energy). Until the late 1970s, the average size of our refrigerators increased steadily and then began leveling off. But, during the same period, the energy those refrigerators used started to decline rapidly. Today’s Energy Star refrigerators are 40 percent more efficient than those sold even seven years ago. After all, there is a maximum size to the refrigerator you can easily put in a kitchen and a limit to the number of refrigerators you need in your house. In short, improvements in efficiency have greatly outpaced our need for more and larger storage spaces.

One problem in applying Jevons’ Paradox to today is the fact that back in 1885, coal was getting cheaper every day. The authors

“suggest that taxes could make up for any savings introduced by efficiency improvements, thereby avoiding the paradox. In the United States, at least, this approach is politically infeasible, but the general principle is sound.”

Holladay suggests an alternative: voluntary simplicity.

I’m calling instead for the voluntary adoption of a simpler lifestyle: one with less work, fewer possessions, and more leisure time. A graceful transition to such a lifestyle would be the greatest possible gift to our children and grandchildren.

Certainly TreeHugger territory, but not an easy sell. However we are in a very temporary bubble of reduced consumption; many are living lives of involuntary simplicity now and when oil prices come back, will have an even harder time. It is a smackdown between Adam Smith and William Jevons; when stuff is expensive, people use less of it. And prices are going to rise, whether we tax them or not.

More at Green Building Advisor

More on Jevons Paradox in TreeHugger:

Beating the Energy Efficiency Paradox (Part I)
Beating the Energy Efficiency Paradox (Part II)
Survey Indicates Americans Deluded On Energy Conservation. Are They Really?

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So it goes..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yERTIErjTE4&feature=related

Have a great weekend

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