FROM THE TAILGATE
Sage advice from the trenches
By Ron Jones
Relatively Speaking
We lost power at our place the other day. That is not unusual where we live in the Pacific Northwest, especially when winter storms routinely put all the infrastructure systems to the test. The outage only lasted about four hours, so it wasn’t a big deal, and we have a back-up generator that we can fire up if we need to. It provides enough power to supply the critical circuits, so we can keep things like the refrigerator working, along with a few lights and small electric devices, computers, phones, and so on.
Our temporary inconvenience had me thinking seriously on a larger scale about what happens when we have an interruption in the services we consider essential but too often take for granted. At the same time when we were relaxing and waiting for the power to return, folks in the heart of the infamous “lake effect” region of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio were getting pounded by up to four feet of snow, with more apparently on the way. I’m not sure I could even find the generator under four feet of snow!
As I pondered that little eventuality I started thinking about the fact that there are billions of people on this planet who don’t even have dependable sources of safe drinking water or basic minimum nutrition, even more who have no adequate sanitation systems, never mind access to power, fuel, and transportation options.
Sustainability is something everybody wants, but it means different things to different people. When a person is wondering where his next drink of water is coming from, the concept of a reliable source of electricity is probably not something he spends a lot of time on. It’s all relative.
For years I have been asking people if they think the price they pay for energy and other resources will be going down or going up in the future. Universally they agree that the prices will continue to escalate but at the same time I don’t encounter many individuals who are consciously concerned about serious interruptions that will affect them for extended periods. Even people who remember the lines at gas stations back in the early 1970s don’t seem particularly concerned that the scenario could easily repeat itself.
Here is where I’m going with all of this: It seems that one person’s future can also be another person’s reality. The future is already here, it’s just not available to everybody at the same time or in the same amounts. It isn’t evenly distributed.
And what that future looks like is going to depend in large measure on how often we are willing to roll the dice and leave control of important situations in the hands of others. It seems to me that when it comes to the built environment, sustainability needs to be the foundation, not the window dressing.
72
02.2011
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84