Ontario Premier Ernie Eves has asked everyone in the province to cut back on their electricity use:
“We currently do not have enough [power] generation back on-line to see us through a regular weekday,” Ernie Eves, the Ontario Premier, said in a televised address yesterday.
Mr. Eves, who told reporters there “isn’t anybody on the face of the Earth that can offer a guarantee that there will not be a rolling blackout of some kind,” urged Ontarians to cut their regular power usage by half and asked all levels of government to operate only essential services for the rest of the week.
Here at Tucows, we’ve shut down the air conditioning and turned off all the lights. Non-essential computers have been shut off, including the company-issued Dell running Red Hat 9 on my desk, which I generally use as an IRC machine and second browser (my own personal Powerbook is my preferred tool). The building so far has remained pretty cool and the nine skylights let lots of sun in, but I’m already planning my move away from my desk at 3 p.m. when the sun from the overhead skylight glares down at me like the abducto-ray from all those alien encounter movies.
I’m going to treat the ongoing power crisis as an excuse to fire up the barbecue tonight rather than use our electric range or oven. Might as well turn lemons into lemonade, right?
Like the way it takes a heart attack to convince some people to change their eating and exercise habits, the big blackout has started to convince some people to find ways to conserve electricity. Power conservation has become a virtue and conspicuous consumption of kilowatts has become a vice, to the point that people running air condtioners are getting overly defensive. Take the quote from the guy in this article:
One man said he had a good excuse for running his air conditioner.
“I resent your asking me that,” he said. “I have asthma, and I could die without the air conditioning, so go away.”
He had me with “I have asthma” and lost me with “I resent” and “I could die”. He comes off more as a petulant emo rock teenager who really needs that new piercing than a guy with a respiratory ailment.
...and by that, I mean, being completely ignorant of the larger world outside the U.S.…
Wednesday, August 7, 1991: A sunny day at Toronto’s CNE Grandstand, and what a lineup:…
The cover painting says it all.
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"I have asthma, and I could die, blah blah blah..."
Does he run the air conditioner in the winter, too?
The thinking with some people seems to be "If everyone else is cutting back their usage, then it won't matter if I turn my (A/C|Washer|Dryer|Dishwasher) on.
The only problem is, they seem to forget the "Now, if I assume that I'm not the only one with this idea..."
(Incidentally, will we get to see pics of the Tucows digs? I'm anxious to see what a surviving, newish-media Internet company looks like)
Wow.. I have asthma and lived for 28 years in Michigan without AC, then I moved to Arizona (its a dry heat). I must have been doing something wrong.
As a nuclear power worker, I'm typically a power conservation bully, but with the recent grid collapse, I've been elevated to the position of Conservation Fascist. I damn near tore the head off of my upstairs neighbour last night when he came home after two days away from his icy-cold power-sucking abandoned apartment.
Energy conservation comes from the barrel of a gun ...
Gamma Fodder
http://www.gammafodder.com/mt/
Okay, time to rant.
While I agree that the kind of pointless waste of electrons symbolized by 24-hour year-round air conditioner use is tasteless and rude, I respectfully disagree on the more general point that conserving energy is going to solve any problems.
For one thing, people won't do it. I have no idea what the numbers are, but I'm willing to bet that power usage has been increasing every year since I've been alive, and will continue to do so unless something Really Bad happens. By that I do not mean a week- or year-long power shortage; it would take something closer to the complete collapse of industrial civilization. Propaganda won't be effective long-term.
It's worth noting that some of the more seriously environmentally-conscious citizens of north america have gone out of their way to use more electrical power rather than less, by way of electric cars. Converting our various users of fossil fuels to pure electrical energy would do a lot more good for the world than cutting back electrical power usage by the few percent that it might be possible to induce people to do.
Nor will the "free market" solve this particular problem. Raising the rates won't help much -- demand here is pretty inelastic. Letting the rates paid triple, as it's been suggested that they will, will only serve to lead people to blame it all on the privatization of hydro, killing Eves' chances in the next election.
In fact, I think that's exactly their angle (they being the various officials who've come out urging everyone to start using less -- long-term of course, not this week.) They're looking for a way to make people think it's their own fault and for their own good that the rates have to be raised.
Cutting back on one's own power usage is great, but expecting that encouraging everyone to do it will make any difference to the stability of the system is just futile, and when done by people who should know better (those industry PR guys on the radio,) it's irresponsible.
The real long-term solution, if there is one, has to involve the clean and abundant energy sources that show some promise for the future. They need only r&d dollars, resolve, a little luck, and time to get them into mass-production.
Anyway. Here's hoping we're all powered by fusion, solar, wind or wave power some day before it's too late.
-sfenders
I'm pretty impressed with Tucows. My office isn't doing anything different at all.
i am doing the little bit of powering down that I can. The AC hasn't been on since thursday but we really haven't needed it. i have begun turning off all lights religiously and even the ceiling fans in rooms other than the bedroom, at night. the computer goes off every night and also if i leave the apt. not much to contribute but a lil.
meanwhile, Bayview is a grand example of "fuck you" that's popular with the wealthy. the subdivisions all around have central air and AC machines running full blast, as do most of the stores on Bayview south. Some of the restos are just opening their door but most places are humming along.
tbit anon
sfenders, I think that the suggested conservation - no A/C, etc. - is only until the nukes can get back online. Still, it's a good idea to conserve power all the time - turning off unused lights, not turning your home into an air conditioned refrigerator, trying to buy energy efficient appliances... it would be nice if the economics of it all worked out so that the energy efficient models pay for themselves within a reasonable amount of time, of course.
As for the "making the people think it's their own fault" part... I don't see that as likely to work. I hope that the PCers aren't that stupid.
Well, at least one person in Toronto possibly has died because of lack of a/c -- check the Star online's articles about Lewis Wheelan. Because of his skin grafts he needed a/c in order to keep from overheating.
As for asthma, I would give him the benefit of the doubt, though yeah, he could've been less of a jerk about it...
--Ani