Hyland,+Go+Fix+It

=Go Fix It: Energy Rations=

It is no secret that energy overconsumption, natural resource depletion, environmental destruction, and other unsustainable habits have left earth in the middle of the largest ecological disaster we have ever experienced. It only takes a quick scan of this wiki or news headlines to find the evidence that even has early skeptics accepting the fact that we have been slowly destroying our planet and making it uninhabitable for people as well as myriad other species. While its becoming more and more clear what sort of actions put us in this predicament, it is still difficult asses what can be done to slow the effects of global ecological change and even start to reverse them. In 2008, the average electricity consumption per household was 11,040kWh in the United States, which was far and away the largest energy consuming nation in the world. It is my proposal that to reduce the amount of energy we consume (and inevitably waste) that each household in America be rationed a certain amount of energy per month, after which, they are completely shut off. In that same year, Maine was the state to consume the least energy per household at 6,252kWh – just over half of the national average. Using this as an example of a livable amount of energy to be used, considering Maine does have some of the most brutal winters in the country, it is not unreasonable to limit every house in the U.S. so that the national average is brought down to around 8,000kWh annually.(EIA) It goes without saying that houses with more people will need to be allowed a little more energy usage than single inhabitant homes, however if a two person home is only allowed 50% more energy than a single person home and a family of four only allowed 50% more than that, people will begin to start to be more concerned with how many people they can bring into their family while maintaining the style of life they lead and in this way people who cannot afford large families and are needlessly contributing to overpopulation will have another hindrance which should prevent them from having more kids. This system would also increase the amount people get involved their communities because it will force them out of their homes to places like the library to do work and research. Restricting energy consumption of the entire house also clearly means restricting the energy consumed by space heating and cooling which could lead to a migration of people to places of the country with more temperate year round climates than places like New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Strangely enough, some of the places with the most pleasant year round weather such as Nebraska and Southern Wyoming are some of the least densely populated and most resource rich areas of the country. With more people living in these resource rich areas which still using fewer resources on energy more energy still will be saved when it is not spend sending supplies from the middle of the country to the coasts. This policy would also likely lead to a surge in the use of private alternative energy sources and act as a catalyst to get people who would never have considered alternative energy to invest in it in order to improve their quality as well as their property value. In similar fashion, the idea of rationing energy in the home could be applied to water and gasoline use. If each household were limited to a set amount of water a day, it is obvious that there would be an instant decrease in the amount of water wasted by leaving water on while brushing your teeth or shaving as well as a surge in the amount of water and energy efficient laundry machines, showers, and toilets are in use. Car fuel could also be limited, although it is unreasonable to say people are limited to a certain amount per period of time because people always have to be able to move around, however, a system where you are required to swipe your driver’s license each time you fill up and the first 20 gallons of the month are at price and there is a 10% price increase on the nest ten gallons and another increase on the next ten gallons etc. would make people think twice before taking wasteful trips, driving when they could walk or bike, and aimlessly driving around. When a baby is getting fat eating too much candy, what does a good parent do? She takes the candy and puts it on the highest shelf so that the kid cannot get at it. And what happens? The baby stops getting fat (at least until it’s old enough to drive to get cheap, processed fast food that is). In this same way, the rationing of energy and resources will force people to, at the very least think about how they need to think about their waste in order to maintain their quality of life. Images: [] [] [] Works sited: US Energy Information Administration, “Frequently Asked Questions – Electricity”. http://www.eia.doe.gov/ask/electricity_faqs.asp