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February 06, 2005
Energy Conservation
This is not a piece about trying to solve world energy problems or criticising the consumerist society, it is just about the fact that people are lazy and careless!
My good friend David is very passionate about the nature apparently! His blog entries are about recycling and global warming. As a person who has been habitually interested in conservation, I am constantly involved with the subject.
I am not sure whether it comes from growing-up in a country during the war and not having electricity for 4 hours a day, or maybe from living in Europe, but I am just very sensitive about wasting electricity! Each evening, my roommate goes to his bed, leaving on the lights in the livingroom and kitchen and everywhere else he can find! Each night, I get up and turn them all off, and the pattern has been repeating. I have no complaints, maybe he just is forgetful!
However, last night, I was going out with two friend of mine, and I went to their apartments to pick them up. Both of them left ALL of their lights on, even the ones in their bathrooms and on their desks! I started turning them off, and they asked me why. My answer was "well, to save energy", and they said "the energy bill is part of the rental money, we don't pay any bills, what does it matter?!"
The answer was a little weird to my ears. So what, I said to myself. Just because we don't pay extra for our electricity, does it mean that we have to waste it? Is charging you extra the only way to make you turn off the lights?
This is probably a pointless complaint, but it does bother me. Wasting energy, even when you don't pay for it, is not a good idea.
Posted by Khodadad at February 6, 2005 02:50 PM
Comments
We do seem to think alike, Khodadad! I always turn off lights, too. My mother taught me that when I was a child. She didn't like to waste money. I lived in a dorm in college where the electricity was included. Still, I turned off my lights when I left. By that age, it wasn't about the money anymore. I have occasionally turned off a friend or relative's lights, also. :) Thanks for the link to my blog. As for my winter garden, I'm definitely ready to trade it for a spring one!
Posted by: David at February 6, 2005 11:01 PM
Hi there! I agree with you fully about wasting electricity. My Grandfather's generation (raised by parents who remember the Great Depression) are more cautious about waste than is my own 20-something generation. I remember during university, friends of mine having a "Beach Party" in the middle of December (in a VERY cold city in the middle of a Canadian winter). They turned the heater up so high that everyone was sweating in their shorts, meanwhile it was negative -30 degrees outside. As you can guess, heat was included in their rent. Even still, I was really bothered by the waste to heat that house... just for the sake of a theme party?!? Terrible.
Posted by: namechange at March 4, 2005 11:39 AM