NPR ran a story on "All Things Considered" yesterday about the growing use of low-power constantly-operating devices in the home such as digital picture frames. It seems we have a problem because as these things get cheaper and cheaper more people use them and therefore we need to build more power plants to supply this increased need for electricity.
They never even raised the question about whether it might be a good idea to try to get people not to use them.
I think if you look at the available supply of energy and the current effect our lifestyle is having on the environment you have to conclude that we're already at the point where we need to cut back significantly on our power usage, not expand it.
The same thing is true for our dependence on cars for transportation. There are much more efficient ways to move people around: trains and public transit, if we only had them. This is what we should be spending stimulus dollars on, not the highway system.
These are examples of the sort of change we need, but no one is even talking about it. As James Kunstler said, there are less than 100 people in the country who agree with him. I think he's wrong, I think there's at least 1000. Pitiful, isn't it?
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