With everybody’s attention focused on the coronavirus crisis, it would be easy to overlook the 50th anniversary of “Earth Day”. Since I missed “Energy Efficiency Day”, I’m not going to make that mistake. I take great pains to keep this blog from being a political commentary, but it will be difficult today – I’ll try my best. I vaguely remember the first Earth Day in 1970. I was finishing up the 5th grade at Eanes Elementary School in Austin, TX. I was in my first year of learning to play the clarinet, which turned out to be a lifelong endeavor. My foggy memory of that event is probably a result of my not yet being quite old enough to take on the spirit of activism that it represented – a fundamentally political activity. I pretty much remember it as the time that Austin first started to be weird. But at that time in my life I was already developing my sense of the importance of an undisturbed natural world to all life, especially human life. Now, 50 years later, we can all see the immediate effects of human activity on our globe.
As a Christian, I resist the temptation to build up our planet as an object of worship. Earth is not my mother, and it’s still an “it”. We are taught to worship the Creator, not the creation. It is that Creator who gave us the power and authority to do to the world what we continue to do to it. We shouldn’t be deceived into thinking that He’s just going to solve our problems for us, at least not in the way we’d like. He tells us that his plan is eventually to destroy the world completely, and remake it in an imperishable form. We Christians look forward to that event, in fear, yes, but also in anticipation of being on the other side of it. Who knows but that the way we’re treating the world now is integral to his plan?
What we should do is look on God’s creation as an object of wonder, pointing back to who He is, and worship Him. I took the picture on this page not 100 yards from my doorstep; it’s easy to walk by the beauty that He’s made for us and ignore it. I walk the dog by this field of wildflowers, including salvia lyrata and many others, every day without giving it much thought. Today, I made the time to enjoy it with my camera in hand. And yes, I had to do some research to figure out what flower I was looking at. If you’re socially distanced like me and sequestered in your home (as you should be), take some time today to just enjoy what beauty there is within steps from your own door. Refresh your mind and spirit with a reminder of God’s wonder and take your eyes away from the newsfeed for a relaxing change.
Something else we can do is reflect on our own contribution to the declining health of our natural world. The US Energy Information Administration tells us that buildings consume 40% of the total energy used in our country, and 75% of the electricity. Residential buildings use just over half of that 75%. Our homes, yours and mine, are major contributors to the global climate problem. Take a moment to review your electricity consumption. Are your bills higher than you’d like? Have you made efforts to figure out where your electricity is going, and what you could change to reduce your consumption? Some changes might be to improve your home’s “envelope” – the walls between you and the outside world that contain the controlled environment you live in. Find leaks and plug them. Find holes in the insulation and fix them or upgrade the level of insulation in your attic. Seal cracks and crevices. Fix window and door seals that are leaking. Take a good look at your energy-consuming equipment – air conditioners, space heaters, water heaters, etc. Do they need upgrading? Have you changed air filters recently? Some simple steps can make a small but real difference.
At SimplEnergy, we’re committed to helping you reduce your energy consumption in a responsible way. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to take actions that will never pay for themselves in energy savings, but it’s not necessarily easy to determine which actions are worthwhile. If you’d like some help along the way, get in touch with us. In the near future, we will have a short questionnaire here on our website to get you started along the path of an “energy makeover” for your home or place of business. Stay tuned!