Living Like Ed by Ed Jr. (whitelam books .txt) 📗

But having said that, there’s far more mercury coming out of the smokestack of a power plant that’s generating electricity to power a standard incandescent lightbulb than there is in a low-energy-usage CFL. If you dispose of CFLs properly, the amount of energy that you’re saving—the amount of coal that won’t be burned at a power plant, of mercury that won’t be going out that power plant’s smokestacks—over the life of that bulb, you’re going to be eliminating much more mercury than you’re creating. The difference is like a teaspoon to a tanker truck. Really.

2.         The quality of light is not as good. I hear this from Rachelle a lot. And in her defense, the light from the early CFLs was sometimes white and harsh, much like the long tubular fluorescents used in offices and businesses. But the newer CFLs come in a wide variety of wattages with softer, warmer glows.

                  I remember when Ed was going to get rid of the antique chandelier in our dining room. It’s from the 1930s, when the house was first built, and I loved it, but Ed decided to replace it because it wasn’t “efficient.” He planned to replace it with this modern thing, a real monstrosity.

I just said, “That’s it. I’m outta here. I can’t live here unless the chandelier stays.”

So Ed put it back up and he put compact fluorescent bulbs in it. That was before the industry had come out with CFLs that could be dimmed, so your choice was either on or off, and the light was really harsh back then. It was horrifying. In the end I just left the chandelier off and lit candles in the dining room. (Fortunately I love candles.)

But compact fluorescent lightbulbs have gotten so much better, thank goodness! We’ve reached a point where I can even turn on the chandelier again! The light is softer, and you can dim them, too. So Ed added a dimmer switch to the chandelier and he put in the newer bulbs, and it’s fine now.

I’ve even found a way to live with some of the older CFLs that we have that are still working—and Ed will be the first to tell you that these things last forever. I just put a lamp shade on them to change the color and soften the light. So believe me, fluorescent lighting in your home doesn’t have to be horrible.

Concerns About Water

Water use—or rather water waste— is a hot topic in our house. Rachelle still doesn’t seem to understand why I keep after her about wasting water. Well, here’s why.

Many experts theorize that water is going to be our next crisis, because of global climate change. If there is less snow in mountainous regions, which most climatologists agree is going to happen, then a water shortage will come. There will be periods of rain, certainly, but right now we have a big savings account banked in all that snow. With global warming, we’ll have less snow in the future, so this “cash” in the form of rain will be passing by quickly. Instead of freezing and staying in a “snow bank,” it will wash right on by and we won’t be able to use it fast enough.

Those same experts say there will be flooding and other problems, too, but the worst part is there will simply be a lot less water, and we won’t have this wonderful reserve. Nature has been doing it this way for years: Build up a stockpile and then release it when the snow melts from the Sierras and our other water storage banks. Year in, year out, you could pretty much count on it. But that cycle has been broken, many experts feel, and if they are correct, it will be very, very dicey for places like Southern California, where nearly all of our water comes from other areas. We get it from the Owens Valley, from the California Aqueduct, from the Colorado River. And if one leg of that stool gets shaved off, we’re going to teeter and eventually fall.

Water comes at such high environmental cost for the fish, and for the people, too. In the Owens Valley lots of folks have respiratory problems and what have you. A bit of a dust bowl thing has occurred there. It’s been an on-going problem for many, many years because of the way they sold off their water rights so we could thrive here in Southern California. But the plant and animal species, as well as the human population, are paying dearly for this transaction.

Water also requires a great deal of energy to move from place to place. One of the biggest energy bills for the infrastructure of the State of California is pumping water. Certainly it takes a great deal of energy to pump water into the California Aqueduct. Gravity does most of the work getting water through the William Mulholland project from the Owens Valley, I’m told, but once in the California Aqueduct, the water must be pumped over mountain ranges. The water that comes from the Colorado River also requires a tremendous amount of energy.

Ways to Save Water

How can you save water? There are so many ways. Some involve simply changing a habit. Others might involve changing a piece of equipment in your home. But none are really all that complicated, when you come right down to it.

                  When I first moved in with Ed, he would come in and turn off the water when I was brushing my teeth. It never occurred to me that I was wasting water. I just liked the sound of water running while I was brushing my teeth; it seemed comforting.

I thought everyone did it. Well, not in this house. I’ve learned about a million different ways to save water, and I’m getting much better at it. I know, because Ed shows me the water bill every month!

Sometimes Rachelle will turn on the water in the