http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/10/2352964/once-a-week-lets-give-mother-earth.html#disqus_thread
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Let's Give Mother Earth Some Space
Have you ever wondered what exactly this "Global Warming" is that they keep talking about? Or wonder why all these tornadoes, droughts, and massive heat waves are coming from? Well, people are beginning to believe that is our faults. With Americas population of 208 million, representing 6% of the worlds population, we use over a quarter of the worlds energy. We also use coal, natural oil, and fossil fuels to power our cars, homes, churches, and other places of interest. We use a lot of it in our country alone and now other countries are beginning to use it too. Our world can't handle more and more use of fossil fuels. Lewis W. Diuguid has come up with an idea of having a weekly-free energy day. This would be a single day a week where people would have to ride bikes or drive battery powered cars that had been charged the day before. Stores would be shut down. All A/C and heating units would be powered off and all flights would be cancelled. He says it would be a way to let Mother Earth catch her breath without harmful pollutants being pumped into the air for just 24 hours. He believes this is a way to bring humanity closer together and get us one step closer to creating non-polluting, non-fossil fuel way of living. I believe that this is a great idea. Why can't we as Americans give up energy for a day? We have become so wasteful and ungrateful with what we have we owe it to the world to give it a break. Also, no energy days would create families spending time together that many people do not do now. We are so caught up in this technological society we forget what it is talking to people face to face, and not over the internet.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/10/2352964/once-a-week-lets-give-mother-earth.html#disqus_thread
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/10/2352964/once-a-week-lets-give-mother-earth.html#disqus_thread
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I think that is a great idea in theory but I don't think everyone will want to follow this plan. I mean, it would help the earth tremendously, but people still have to work and do other things that would require energy. And would you really want to have a day in the summer where you didn't have A/C? How could you make sure that no one in America was following this plan. There is no way to enforce it. It's a great idea but just impractical.
ReplyDeleteI don't see any way this could work out. Delaying flights for a day would mess up schedules of businesses and families everywhere. There are some things that could be put off for a day but certain necessities need to remain on.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with Reilly more. The idea that we could in effect shut our country down is incredulous. There are other more time and energy efficient ways to help slow the effects we are having on this earth.
ReplyDeleteThe idea is a bit of a stretch, but if it could happen and work it would definitely help. Unfortunately as previously said there would be no reason to enforce it. The only way I could see people getting out and participating would be with things such as town festivals or something that somehow don’t use energies or like a bunch of activities done at a public park. I think if this plan starts out small it has the chance of being successful, I wouldn’t jump straight to cancelling flights a day as that would cause a lot of people problems, so let’s just take baby steps with something like this.
ReplyDeleteI think that this idea would cause more problems than it would solve anything. Shutting down stores and making people travel by bike would mean no salary for a day. Some people cannot afford that, especially not in this economy. Not only could it not be enforced, but constricting the use of energy-consuming things for one day wouldn't make enough difference in the long run. I believe that it would be more beneficial to the environment if everyone made an effort to put a limit on the things they use pertaining to the individual every day. For example, if parents have kids who watch four hours of television a day, make it one hour and get them to play outside--this could create family time. Or teenage girls could allow their hair to air-dry instead of using a blow dryer for thirty minutes every morning. If the 208 million people in America cut out a few things from their lives every day, then I think that would prove to be more beneficial in the long run than everyone shutting down for 24 hours, especially as more and more energy-efficient products appear, such as the rechargeable car.
ReplyDeleteThis is not about us! Its about saving the earth! People didn't NEED it before it was invented, we don't NEED it now! Humans are greedy and selfish. Instead of thinking about how this might disrupt us for 24 hours, imagine how much it would help us long term (if your still thinking about yourself.) This planet is our home and we need to take care of it even if it takes a little effort. Often things are not bothered to be fixed so might as well go to an extreme and fix it while we still can.
ReplyDeleteThere are far greater problems with this idea than mere inconvenience. Power plants supply a steady source of electricity to cities and towns – it would take a lot of energy to shut down and restart power plants once a week. Most business can’t halt for a day, and if they did, they would just make up for it the day later. Like Reilly said, planes wouldn’t be delayed for the day as travelers would just travel the next day. Freightliners and shipping trucks wouldn’t stop for the day as the delay would cost more money and electricity. Keeping a house at 75 degrees is cheaper than cooling it down from 90 degrees once a week. This idea is great in theory but humorously terrible in application.
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