Email Jim at jim.thompson@ipulpmedia.com
When I look back on what has happened in my lifetime, both at work and at home, I see ever increasing energy uses, some of which may not be smart.
Computers and the Internet, and all the ancillary issues that go with these (cloud computing, server farms and so forth), are the big hidden users that did not exist when I started working in 1970. When I started working in 1970, there was not a desktop calculator, let alone a computer, in the entire company. There was one pitiful copying machine that could copy one page at a time. Faxes had not been invented or at least were not widespread. This was a company that fabricated steel products--the biggest user of electricity was arc welders.
OSHA was a new idea and had not promulgated any regulations.
At home, their were lights, a TV, an electric vacuum cleaner, refrigerator, and an electric mixer in the kitchen. Perhaps a blender.
The obesity rate for adults in 1970 was 15%, children, 4%.
Now, we have "power" everything. I have two robot electric mowers. We have an electric dumbwaiter between the first and second floors in our home. We have two kitchens--one on the main floor and one in the basement. We have air conditioning. We do have 16 solar panels on the roof which keeps our purchased electrical use below our most efficient peers according to Georgia Power.
At work, many manual tasks have been eliminated or assisted by powered devices. OSHA, efficiency, and the fear of being sued by an injured employee has driven many of these improvements.
The Centers for Disease Control reports that the 2023 obesity rate for adults in the US is 40.3%. For children, the rate is 19.3%.
How did the rate go up for children? Perhaps it is because they are no longer outside playing?
Linking obesity to energy trends may be a stretch for some. My premise is that energy is, at least partially, a zero-sum game. Going back a couple of hundred years, it was obvious in the early 18th century that energy came from animals (horses and oxen), people, water wheels, and in the Netherlands, wind. There was no electricity.
I like to spend time with a Mennonite colony in Southern Ohio. They have battery powered clocks. They farm with horses. That's it. And there is no obesity in the entire group. Connection?
Just maybe we have overdone it in taking the energy burden off our own backs. Time for a re-examination?
Be safe and we will talk next week.
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