Greatest Energy Efficiency

Our society is one great big machine. As our "Great Recession" begins to slowly wind down, I hope the commitment to finding a new world order continues. While the distress of many turns to relief, the fact remains that the old way is not sustainable. The efforts towards recreating a new order should continue.

New World Order
When I say "new world order", I mean those things which encourage and advance the cause of sustainability. We need to have a sustainable social order. We need to have a sustainable economic system. And, most importantly, we need a sustainable political order.

This great democracy (really it is a "republic") called the United States of America has a very sustainable political order. We change leaders every four (or eight) years in a wonderfully non-violent way.

And there has been a lot of progress in creating a sustainable social order. In the past century, there has been much progress: women got the right to vote in 1920 and fity years later there were women in most if not all universities. Progress was made in civil rights in the 1960s, and progress in that area will -- I hope -- continue. These changes have enhanced the stability of society, and has therefore made them much more sustainable.

The last frontiers, I believe, are in the economic and environmental front. Although two separate arenas, they are tightly interconnected. What we have done in the past is not sustainable, which means things like burning coal to generate electricity, and dumping waste into our drinking water.

Energy
What is energy? Energy is a tool. Like a hammer or a book, energy provides a way to extend some human faculty. A hammer that pounds a nail into a wood beam does something that is good and helpful. That same hammer that breaks a car window is, on the other hand, most likely not doing something good and helpful.

Just like a hammer, energy is also a tool. Used in the right way, it extends what people can do so that we can read at night, travel over distances, and stay warm when it is cold outside. But we must be thoughtful about this. If, for example, we pollute the air we breathe because of the way we generate energy, then we are doing ourselves some harm. Likewise, if we waste energy by keeping lights on that are not used, or running computers 24 x 7 x 365, then this tool is not being taken care of in the proper fashion.

Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency is about re-thinking how we use our energy. The focus is often on the energy that is consumed (or saved). Are we using less electricity? Is our use of natural gas appropriate for the heat that is being generated? Are we making the best use of the gasoline that is consumed.

What is the role of human energy in all of this? I think it must play a central role. The role of ANY energy-consumption must be to extend some human faculty. And yet, if the human energy behind it -- the thinking, the planning, the acting, the living -- is not well thought out, then all kinds of other energy will be wasted.

The main source of all energy efficiency must come, then, from efficiency in how the human energy is invested in the process. In some sense, human energy and human intelligence is the scarcest resource of all. Only by thinking through what we are trying to do can we decide (1) if, in fact, we even need to use the energy from the environment, and also (2) how and how much of that externally-source energy we must use. It all starts, I believe, with how the surrounding human energy is deployed.