Week 7: Energy (Blog part I)

December started with two days of snow, which created a beautiful winter wonderland. Although I wondered after reading a newspaper heading which said that the snow could create potential runoffs...something along this line. It's not very romantic-but could it be the effect of climate change? Certainly it would create runoffs...Anyway I have questions to answer.
The handout will be turned in. The second question might come later. So it is question number 3 I will start with.

Week 7: Questions

3) In what ways do you indirectly use energy? How could you reduce your indirect use of energy?

I use energy indirectly in several ways. Although in the beginning I was not aware that what I did do use energy, until I learned more about energy use in class. Some of how I use energy indirectly is more for communication, others are imports from other countries and traveling.

A) I send letters, "snail mail" to my family and friends. I like sending letters the slow way since a hand written letter can be personal and heartfelt. I will say that some family friends and relatives don't have computers, hence I have to resort to sending letters 'snail mail.' I could also send e-mails for those who do have e-mail addresses and computers, and it would not only save fuel (from airplanes carrying the mail) but also paper. Like 'killing two birds with one stone," which is a very cruel saying.

B) Go Local. I could buy produces and products specifically from Washington or the Pacific Northwest. There seems to have been a small movement for shoppers to 'go local' and buy products, which come from a certain number of distances. This not only saves energy from importing products from other countries like New Zealand, but supports local companies. I will have to make an exception to certain luxury products, such as chocolates or imported Olive oil, or products which one doesn't find in the Northwest, but only from a specialty store.

C) Traveling, while we all love traveling-we could cut back once in a while. Whether it's by car or air, they use energy and fuel and also puts CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. Traveling in the 'friendly skies" once in a while is alright, but not everyday.
As for car transportation, most or some people see cars as a necessity (I'm one of them), but if there is a nearby grocery store, then it could be ideal to walk or bike there. I suppose I could take the bus, but since I don't know the bus route and I'm too lazy to find where the nearest bus stops are, I like to drive the car to BCC.

D) Manufactured goods made in other countries. Manufactured goods take energy and fuel to make, hence we could either stop buying goods made in China and buy goods made in the USA, or cut back on the number of goods we buy. Although I'm not sure the latter is the most reasonable solution. Most of the goods we buy are produced in China, not only that, but they are probably flown into the US afterwards, which uses more fuel from importing goods

E) This is linked to D, but the energy to produce products takes energy. For example the energy in the factory to manufacture bottled water, or running a farm in order to produce goods takes energy from animals, humans and even technology.

F) Energy from food. When we eat the food we have eaten will be fuel. We use this energy to do quite a number of things, such as walking or studying. Enough said.

A lot of what we take for granted takes energy-it seems. I never even thought of all this even when I had last opened bottled water-or eaten an apple grown in New Zealand. This means this computer is using energy, and I'm using the energy to write this blog. I could either cut back the number of time I write blogs, or turn the computer off after I'm done (this is more logical).

Part II will follow up shortly afterwards.