Something that's actually good

Sometimes you come across something that's both funny and insightful and it really makes your day. Well, aside from the reality that I can't remember the last time that happened before today, read this now.

The good stuff starts with the wonder of acknowledging how obssessed everyone in the sustainability vortex is with home weatherization--hey, it's that elusive 'low-hanging fruit', a boundless source of that poorly defined term, 'green jobs', and a 'win-win-win' for the triple bottom line, right? or is it 'win-win'? whatever--Hiskes gives us precious nuggets of insight into how home energy audits actually work, and why homeowners ask for them.

Then there's the gems. Here's an especially good one:

"I failed spectacularly in my goal to hear from an Ordinary Homeowner. I had hoped to see how a non-enviro-wonk experiences an energy review. By sheer coincidence, Paul's morning assignment sent him to the home of Langdon Marsh, former environmental commissioner for the states of New York and Oregon. Nice guy."

Gems aside, this article hones in on two things: firstly, it's becoming increasingly obvious that when it comes to short term emissions reductions, a lot of the critical solutions we need aren't just national, regional or local--they're profoundly individual. Secondly, and this one is more personal to me, it sends chills up my spine thinking about how radically these individual actions need to scaled up. How are we going to get an energy audit to every single household in the developed world? And what about the changes that need to be installed and activated after these audits? And who can afford all of this anyway? And why do I always leave the lights on in the bathroom when I leave the house? So many questions, so little time.

The UK government has dived head-first into this 'dilemma' with its ambitious Green New Deal, which I spent a recent Green Mondays event arguing fruitlessly over with a bunch of people who brought incredibly unfounded arguments and ideologies to the table. I wish someone had at least brought me a sandwich. Or maybe a beer.