Over
the years, I’ve tried to put together essays and such that dove
into things like the environment… climate change, recycling, and,
simply put, just the overall need for awareness and action when
it comes to treating the planet better.
While
some of the efforts reached a point where I was ready to post
the finished work, I have hardly ever felt as though I completely
connected with the material and expressed my thoughts. Most of
it is decent and I still agree with almost all of my initial premises,
I just have this inner voice telling me something is missing here
or doesn’t seem fully developed there.
So…
at it again. This is the third of three that will be posted together.
The idea is to take observations and realities, combine it with
sarcasm and cynicism, and hopefully find myself satisfied with
the result.
Above
all, let me be clear: On the whole, we treat the planet horrendously.
We’re awful. I truly believe we could make massive waves of improvements
to the environment if all of us simply learned the proper use
of a waste basket and getting trash to it. (Wrappers belong in
a bin, folks, not tossed to the roadside from the window of a
moving car.)
We
aren’t just capable of doing better, we need to do better, and
we
need to do better NOW.
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Head
out on the internet and do your own research. The subject: Home
solar power.
Most
estimates place the cost of converting an average home to solar
power between fifteen and twenty-five thousand dollars.
Now,
in fairness, just about everyone actually leans toward the lower
end of that range, offering a range between eighteen and nineteen
thousand. And, those ranges do not include tax credits, rebates,
and other ways of offsetting the cost.
But
they also don’t include the routine care, general maintenance,
and repair charges. Even if we assume the best cost for the consumer,
there are details that get brushed aside. As in…
The
claim is you won’t have an electric bill any more. (Sweet. That’s
good news. It’s also not completely accurate.)
If
you pay between $150 and $200 each month for electricity, you
run between $1,800 and $2,400 a year. At that estimate, a $20,000
system that eliminates that bill would be paid off in eight to
eleven years. (Do you see it? Your electrical bill has been replaced
by an installation bill. And that’s provided there are no other
costs involved.)
But
costs there are. Most estimates for these run well under $1,000
a year, somewhere in the still significant range of about $500.
And so we arrive in a place where, based solely on the routine,
the costs of installation plus ongoing maintenance against the
savings of no electric bill won’t balance out for well over a
decade.
More
than a decade… which is approximately when you will arrive at
the start of replacing portions of the system, such as the inverter.
The
general concept here is this… because you installed a solar system
and no longer have a monthly electric bill, you don’t get to ignore
the costs of maintaining and repairing that solar system.
In
the first two essays of this project, we looked at two specific
ideas:
First,
that many people will view environmental issues, and methods for
addressing them, on personal needs. If it doesn’t change their
quality of life, people will have a hard time sacrificing to improve
it. That’s not a judgement on right and wrong, or a comment on
generosity and selfishness. It’s simply a recognition of the fact
that people do view needs, actions and emergencies based on personalized
experiences, priorities and finances.
Second,
we need to at least question whether the solution is actually
an improvement over the problem.
Those
bring me to our comments here on the costs of installing solar
power. I want to encourage all of us to take a moment to pause
and really consider the best solutions to the issues we face.
Each
and every time I’ve been critical of global warming theories and
attempts at environmental improvements, I’ve tried to do so by
saying without question there are massive problems and concerns
that we must address. This run of essays is no different.
We
are… people are… as a collection, horrendous in our actions and
attitude about the planet. And before we even consider the damage
to and finite availability of natural resources, we need to realize
our health suffers as the result of our actions. The universal
lack of clean drinking water, the destruction of coral reefs and
rainforests, the… look, we are killing off our bees, destroying
the quality of farmable lands, and most shrug it off before they
finish eating a bowl of cereal in the morning.
I
am not questioning the needs for electric vehicles, alternative
energy sources, and immediate action. We do need to act now. But
to do this properly, we need to have everyone understand how we
benefit, replace the scary with actual expectations of sacrifices
and changes, and approach the future as a collective and united
group.
I
hope that we can soon find the ways to do that. But until we do,
I ask you to think about yourself. I ask you to think about your
own abilities to improve things. It may be making sure you properly
dispose of trash instead of tossing it to the side of the road,
and it may be learning more about local recycling efforts. Maybe
you improve your water usage by addressing the way you wash dishes
and do your laundry.
It's
not going to be perfect. Nothing ever is. But it can be better,
and that’s the biggest point of all.
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The
other parts:
“My
interests in water: A global climate review, part one”
“Do
you have enough AA batteries to mow your lawn?: A global climate
review, part two”