Blue skies are lovely, but not when an area desperately needs rain. It’s painfully obvious how our weather is changing, and not for the better.
Here I am living in one of the lushest gardens of Canada, prime growing climate for fruits, and a huge wine industry. But not this year, with burnt lawns everywhere and soil parched for water. Hardly any snow all winter, so the ground doesn’t have any moisture stored up from a normal spring thaw.
One has to reflect keenly on what countless billions of people have suffered in other places when famine kills crops and people. It’s always on my mind, somewhere just lurking, that even though we have modern conveniences including air conditioning, we should never forget that it could be gone overnight if the power fails. And I’m shocked and dismayed that there aren’t any programs or reminders to keep the AC low, and off as much as possible to preserve hydro. No, we merrily push all the buttons without a second thought.
It’s pure recklessness that has computers left on 24/7. While it’s possible to turn off (which I do all the time, except when in use) the cursed things, yes I do think they have ruined our lives in many ways, are actually not designed for On/Off use. I had to have the Geek Squad reset my anti-malware program so I can scan manually, otherwise it got confused because of the hours it was turned off!! Call me weird, but I want to see the scan record and what has been found or quarantined, and make sure the updates are current.
Next are we going to keep our cars idling all the time, stoves turned on? Of course not, not in a million years would we waste like that! But what we do waste is light years more far-reaching.
Dryers are one place where power is frivolously spent. Clothes dry perfectly in the air, but clothes lines are outlawed in ‘high class’ urban neighbourhoods, and on building balconies. What nonsense! The height of absurdity, and I call it stupidity. No dryer can make things smell as fresh as sunshine and outside air, despite all the expensive additives meant to do so.
Air flow pumps that could, and I believe should, be lowered or turned off at night in high rise residential buildings and offices, are huge wasters. The ones in my building are always blowing harder than is needed to do the job, so all the power cost is added to our condo fees. Not only do they use more electricity than needed, the pumps themselves wear out sooner. Also we freeze in the hallways in the winter and cook in the summer, thanks to the direct hard pumping in of outside air.
The complete list is too long to write here, but you get the drift.
Did you get the feeling I would rather be living in a cottage in the woods? Yup, you guessed right.
Truth is I am one of the spoiled fragile beings that would likely not survive it.
Eleanor Lawrie, Author 