I’ve been doing my best, as just one person, to stop the recent CBS News prediction of a “30-year war for energy preeminence” from becoming a reality.
My company, Conservation Pros, is in the business of retrofitting buildings (mostly private homes) for energy efficiency. I’ve found that people, for the most part, just flat-out don’t give a shit. And, honestly, I don’t know how much longer I can keep trying to convince them otherwise.
I started this business when my first child was in his Mother’s womb. The whole experience of pending fatherhood filled me with an impulse to do something right and good for the world. I surveyed my skills and came up with this somewhat fledgling field of building performance. Although I have a Bachelor’s degree in Art and Theater, I’ve spent much of my adult life in remodeling and construction, because art and theater don’t pay very well. So, hey, there it was. Devote my working hours to making homes more energy efficient, healthier, and safer. And I’ve been doing so ever since.
You want to know a secret? It sucks! It’s hard, hot, nasty work. The pay sucks. Often, the people suck too. I’ve had customers take me to the cleaners just because they could. I’ve had fights over a few dollars with people who make more in a week than I’ll make in my lifetime. I’ve had employees walk out after my taking shots for them, for years.
Via my efforts, and those of the people who have worked for me, our clients in Western North Carolina (more specifically Asheville) are now paying over $130K less for energy, they have removed over 100 tonnes of carbon gasses from the air, and many of them have never been so happy and cozy in their homes.
Just as I’m running out of the motivation to keep doing this work Michael T. Klare mentions, in a recent CBS article, that energy efficiency as a crucial approach to the problem of an energy war in the year 2041. I’ve been trying to tell all of you that for years.
We could have that well underway by now. But we seem to prefer talk over action. I’ve worked with energy wonks, for years, that keep spouting the same strategies and theories for the future and have never once taken action to do a damn thing about the cold, hard realities of today.
I’ve been pushing this rock up this hill for almost six years and it’s been like pulling teeth the whole way. Again and again, I’ve met with people who are all fired up about having an impact who get sucked down into the abyss of talking, planning, and then talking some more. All the while, nothing ever gets done, nothing gets better, my children (and yours) are still on-track to inherit our laziness and apathy.
I’d really like to be feeding you all lolipops and rainbows right now but I’m having trouble with my bullshit pump this week. Here’s some depressing, discouraging, and down-right scary news for you, folks. It’s gonna get real ugly out there when the energy starts to run out, China is drawing more than we could ever dream, and their currency is worth more than the almighty dollar.
You can tuck your kids into bed tonight telling them that Mommy and Daddy wish they would have done something to ensure an abundant supply of energy for their future, but that they were just too comfortable and lazy to do anything about the status quo.
Wanna get seriously depressed? Read the rest of the article here.