The Price of Green Power

Is apparently lower than regular power.

You'll remember earlier this year when I implored Puppeteers to consider switching to green power for only $16 a month, and mentioned that PSE gave me coupons to buy CFL bulbs to replace the regular bulbs in our house. That was a follow-up to previous posts about my switch to green power. I spent those coupons and about $40 more on switching to green power, and since I just got my PSE bill for the last month I wanted to note a trend.

For the fifth month in a row, my power bill has been below $100. Last summer - I just checked and did the math - my average bill was $114.59. Since, if anything, I've been running the Xbox 360 more this summer than last, I can't help but think those CFL bulbs had something to do with the savings.

PSE told me my bill would be about $15 more a month, but instead it's dropped by about $16 a month. When compared to last summer's power bills, I've already saved the cost of the CFL bulbs and from here on out the savings are just money in the bank. Or, it offsets and even one-ups the cost of "going green."

Rethinking the whole green power thing? Yeah, I would too.

So what have you done lately?

Earth Day, Two Days Late

With all the green-related posts I've been making lately, you'd think I would have been all over Earth Day. My buddy Chris and his girlfriend were in town this weekend, so most of my time was spent with them rather than online. So no Earth Day post.

I would however like to direct your attention to Lifehacker, who have linked to a wonderful list of 10 easy things you can do to "go green." I'm still not sold on the meat one (I've seen the statistics bandied about for vegetarianism being more eco-friendly, but they mostly seem to be supported by vegetarian activist studies rather than hard science.) You can also have my high-powered ancient showerhead when you pry it out of my cold dead fingers - my power wash isn't something I'm willing to part with. But the others are good suggestions. Check it out.

Frosty Hardison Gets What's Coming To Him

Thanks to Seattlest for alerting me to the fact that local dipshit Frosty Hardison (previously discussed here) was featured on The Daily Show, where they appropriately trotted his ignorance out and exposed it for what it is.

When people who believe the Earth was created in six days start dictating science curricula, it's high time we examine our process.

Fuck you, Frosty. Hope you like being exposed for the village idiot you are.

You do have to admit that Frosty does a pretty funny Church Lady and Robin Williams though.

Now You Need to Go Green

Alright, pay attention Puppeteers. Today my information packet arrived for switching to green power. It included $10 worth of coupons towards CFL lights (which use 75% less power than regular lightbulbs and last ten times as long), and a little introductory letter about the program.

It turns out that in my environmentally-conscious, liberal, blue-as-blue-can-be city of Seattle, only 2000 homes are currently being supplied with green power.

2000. Granted, that's PSE's customers (as opposed to Seattle Light), but 2000.

So here's your mission: for the $16 a month, skip four fucking lattes and sign up for green power. Or at least consider it. Or consider signing up for partial green power (you don't have to go the whole $16 if you don't want to.)

If we demand it, by law the power company is required to buy green power. If they can't buy it, they're required to build the infrastructure (wind, hydro, etc.) to support it.

So demand it. 2000 is pathetic.

Watch this space for more opportunities to see what you can do to help.

What have you done lately?

How You Too Can Go Green

Following my previous post on Going Green, more than one of the Puppeteers asked how they could Go Green, especially given that they are in a rental situation. It turns out that my brother out-liberaled me on this one; he's been using green power in Denver for a while now, and he's renting an apartment. He, like my wife and I used to do, had our own account with the power company, so for him it was simply a matter of calling them up and asking them to switch him.

For those who are splitting a bill or are paying through your landlord, I suggest calling your landlord/neighbors and getting the "OK" to switch to green power, and then calling the power company (or having your landlord call) to make the switch.

Of course I joke about this being a liberal issue: the fact of the matter is, it's an issue across the board no matter your politics. When churches are getting into the act because they realize that humans might have the ability to screw up stewardship of the planet, and even my conservative-run Alma Mater takes steps beyond its halfassed token recycling program, perhaps this finally does indicate a shift in the right direction. No pun intended.

The Cost of Going Green

I just called PSE, our local energy provider, and switched entirely to green power. Green power comes from sources like wind plants and hydro plants (of which there are plenty in Washington state) rather than coal/oil burning plants.

I made the switch because after watching An Inconvenient Truth and reading comments on this blog and others, it really is up to us to get off our asses and do something about it. This problem isn't going to fix itself, and the only ones we can blame for not taking action are ourselves.

The PSE person explained to me that they can't control exactly where the power comes from on the grid that flows into my house, but that I would be feeding the proper amount of green power into the grid. Of course, if everyone on PSE did this, the entire grid would be green. So I realize that while my power might come from some rootin', tootin,' pollutin' source (and likely will until I install my own solar panels and windmills), someone else somewhere is getting green power.

The total cost of my power bill will go up by all of $16 a month, on average. That's far less than the money we saved by properly insulating our attic this year, and it's a price I'm willing to pay.

So what have you done lately?

What Have YOU Done?

I wanted to share with my readers the letter I sent to the Federal Way school board, the fine folks who decided that pseudoscience and science were the same:

Greetings again members of the Federal Way School Board,

This last week, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a report stating that humans are "very likely" the cause of global warming - you can read about it here: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/02/02/climate.change.report/index.html. These scientists used terms like "It's unequivocal" and "90 percent certainty." As the news article to which I linked states, even President Bush himself addressed climate change in his recent State of the Union speech.

More scientific evidence. Almost unilateral support from both sides of the political spectrum. Perhaps it is time you recognized that you made a grevious misake by capitulating to the pseudoscience of a religious extremist rather than a decision grounded in scientific research and fact. Please do not continue to do your children a disservice by pretending that there is an "opposing point of view." Simply put: there isn't. Frosty was given a venue at which to share his ideas of not only global warming, but creationism and lack of birth control education. Good for him. Let's admit our mistakes and move on.

I look forward to reading in the Times that you have admitted you were wrong and reversed your previous decision.

So what have you done?

More Warming

The proof just keeps on coming - more and more scientists, more and more studies, all saying the same thing: global warming is happening, and humans are causing it.

Is it any wonder that the same people who oppose it are often the same people who think creationism should be taught alongside evolution in science courses? Or that Saddam was a "slam-dunk" for having weapons of mass destruction?

Yeah. People who live apart from a little something called "reality."

Inconvenience and Truths

Fair warning: I am ignoring Leah's advice and writing something not-wacky here.

Yesterday, Liz and I took a Family Circus (ie., wandering and directionless) trip around town after a wonderful breakfast at Alexa's. We ended up at Best Buy (which, I might add, had a whole skid of PlayStation 3s - so if you want one, go grab one. Incidentally, no one wanted one in the half-hour we were in the store.) I grabbed a copy of Idiocracy on DVD, Mike Judge's new movie that was kept out of theaters. Sitting close to it was An Inconvenient Truth, which I had fully intended to get around to buying eventually. So I grabbed it. Liz and I watched it last night.

Upon second viewing, I actually liked it more than I did the first time. The things that annoyed me in the movie theater as far as pacing was concerned, didn't annoy me nearly as much from my couch. But this isn't a film review.

After grabbing the movie and heading to REI to grab a backpacking sleeping bag I got on the cheaps, Liz and I were talking about global warming (or global climate change, if you prefer - potato, potatoe, but climate change is to global warming what complexity theory is to chaos theory, I suppose.) Specifically, Brandon made a post the other day about a school board decision down in Federal Way that requires "an opposing view" on global warming be presented when teachers show An Inconvenient Truth. "Score one for the skeptics," Brandon says (non-Seattleites: Brandon is one of my good friends, and although he tends to be at the opposite end of the political spectrum, we don't really let that get in the way of our friendship, much like me and Bobby or me and Meghan. I also want to make it quite clear that I'm not attacking or upset with my buddy in this post, I'm raging against a guy named Frosty. You'll meet him in a moment.) The AP story, which Brandon quoted in full on his site, is here.

But the story has another chapter. The AP story was really just a blurb, and wasn't local, so I thoguht I'd try to find what the Seattle rags had to say about it. A little Google-fu revealed a Seattle PI story about the decision. The PI story reveals some interesting context around the parent who lead the fight to the school board that lead to this decision, one Frosty Hardison:

After a parent who supports the teaching of creationism and opposes sex education complained about the film, the Federal Way School Board on Tuesday placed what it labeled a moratorium on showing the film. The movie consists largely of a computer presentation by former Vice President Al Gore recounting scientists' findings.

"Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. "The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD."

In case you missed the really important information there, I bolded it for you.

So rather than an actual scientifically sound view "opposing" climate change, what you have is a guy who thinks the Earth is 14,000 years old - and not a scientist or a schoolteacher himself - who has now dictated curriculum for an entire school board. His argument is not based on science, nor is it based on fact. Like creationism and other faith-inspired beliefs - say, for example, Holocaust Denial - there is no evidence for its teaching in schools apart from the Bible. There is no scientific or factual basis to back this up, especially in the case of climate change, as is cited in the PI article above. The scientific consensus is overwhelming: to pull a statistic from the film itself, a study showed zero - nil, goose-egg, null set - peer-reviewed scientific articles that cast doubt that humans were a major contributing cause to global climate change. However, in the news, 53% of stories cast doubt. And people like Frosty Hardison certainly aren't submitting the Bible to peer-reviewed scientific journals.

So I think that pretty much takes care of addressing the real facts behind this case. I have to ask old Frosty though: if it's appropriate to teach the opposing point of view, the view that flies in the fact of scientific consensus simply because it conforms to your own beliefs, in a science classroom - would it then be appropriate to require students to learn about Holocaust denial before watching Schindler's List in History class?

There is no difference. Both are belief systems utterly lacking any kind of factual basis or scientific backing. So where's the requirement to teach that the Holocaust never happened? Perhaps it's floating around on an iceberg the size of Delaware that recently broke off from the Arctic ice shelf in Northern Canada? Oh right, sorry, that's not in the Bible either. My apologies, Frosty. I'll go ride my Brontosaurus to work now.

Back in reality, Brandon's post actually inspired a lengthy and interesting conversation between Liz and myself where we were trying to figure out exactly what the big deal about addressing climate change is among conservatives. To me, it seems like a no-brainer. If we're shitting up our nest, we need to fix it. Even if there is some doubt about whether humans are the cause - which for the sake of argument, I'll allow, even if it does ignore years of scientific research - there's still a chance we're fucking up the Earth, so maybe we should at least address it. Right?

That's what I just don't understand. Many conservative ideals, I can understand - and in some cases, agree with. Abortion - if you believe an unborn fetus is a life, then opposing abortion is not only understandable, it would be a moral requirement. Smaller fiscal government - a sound principle for a free market economy. Even the War in Iraq is understandable on a rational level, as is the drive to put more troops on the ground, as Bush has recently announced. (Is he right? I don't know. I frankly don't know what to think about Iraq anymore, but that's beyond this post.) But global climate change - why?

Will it cost money to implement the changes required to avoid massive climate change? Sure. But if we're wrong, will it cost even more to deal with potentially a billion displaced people and the massive amounts of infrastructure damage that could occur? Absodamnlutely. Is investing in a preventative step now to avoid a far more costly "solution" later worth the investment? I would say it is. Or at the very least, if you don't think human beings are responsible for climate change but it's occuring anyway (after all, it's hard to argue with icebergs the size of some of the original colonies), shouldn't we at least be investing in the kinds of infrastructure changes to deal with a potential rise in ocean levels? But we're doing neither.

There is a religious view, but I have a hard time believing that all conservatives (or even anywhere near a majority of them) who doubt climate change are like Frosty the Psychoman and believe that God placed radiocarbon dating in rocks as a means of testing His faithful. It's the religious right's version of snake handling: something that should be resepcted as any belief system should, sure, but isn't exactly representative of a consensus among the party.

So to quote the South Park version of Saddam Hussien: what's the big fucking deal? Even if you're dubious about the results, don't you think it's at least worth our while to try to stop shitting in our nests or at least prepare for what already seems to be starting?

I guess I really don't get it, and that seems kind of inconvenient to me.

Update 1: CNN.com runs an article about Evangelical Christians and scientists working together to address global warming.

"Whether God created the Earth in a millisecond or whether it evolved over billions of years, the issue we agree on is that it needs to be cared for today," said Rich Cizik, vice president of government relations for the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents 45,000 churches.

I guess not everyone who believes that the Earth is 14,000 years old have their heads planted firmly up their asses. Which frankly makes those who do all the more troubling to me. I still don't get it.