Baby, it’s cold outside -- and inside, too
NATURAL PERSPECTIVES
Winter has arrived. It’s freezing inside. OK, not literally -- but
it feels like it.
Every year, Vic and I struggle to see how long we can last without
turning on the heat. I don’t know why. It’s just a silly habit that
we got into when we lived in Connecticut and had to pay $200 a month
for fuel oil.
That was back in the late 1970s when we were poverty-stricken
graduate students. We kept the thermostat set at 55 degrees, turning
it up to 60 only when we had company. But our heating bills still
gobbled up nearly a quarter of our monthly income during the winter
months.
Then we moved here to the land of fun and sun. During our first
California winter, we didn’t use the heater at all and were still
comfortable. Over the years, we’ve become sissies. Now, I edge toward
the thermostat as soon as indoor temps drop to the low 60s. We
usually make it to late November or early December before we turn the
heat on. Last week, I couldn’t take it anymore. I turned the
thermostat up to 65 when Vic wasn’t looking. You should have heard
him.
“Did you touch that thermostat?” he asked in that accusatory tone
that only miserly, skinflint, tightwad husbands can assume. He must
have sensed his pennies going up the heat vent.
“Yes,” I replied, shivering. “I’m coming down with a cold.”
“Put on a sweater,” he replied.
I already had on a sweatsuit and was wrapped in a blanket. My
eyelids had frozen shut. My blood was about to congeal. “Please,” I
begged, “I’m sick.”
Sick of being cold was what I really meant. Now don’t get me
wrong, I certainly don’t waste energy. When it gets cold, I put on
warmer clothes. Our down comforter keeps us warm at night. The sun
usually warms the house enough in the daytime that the heater rarely
fires up if we set the thermostat at 60.
But after the sun goes down and before we crawl into our snuggly
bed, it seems colder. In the evening, I want to burn some natural
gas. I want to consume some of our precious natural resources. I
yearn to wantonly squander fossil fuel and contribute to global
warming. In the evening, it’s personal warming that is of most
interest to me.
Using natural gas for heat is a good option. It is more energy
efficient to burn natural gas in a home heater than it is to heat
with electricity. Natural gas is certainly a better, cleaner-burning
fuel than the home heating options of yesterday.
My grandparents heated their homes with coal. Before their era, my
great-grandparents used woodstoves for heat. Their parents and
grandparents were pioneers who heated their small log cabins with a
fireplace fueled by wood they chopped themselves. My
great-great-grandfather’s sister, who homesteaded in Indiana,
shivered by the fireplace all winter while the wolves that howled
outside the door made her hair stand out “a yard or two long.” Home
heating, like many other things, has evolved for the better.
Natural gas is a good, clean fuel compared to some other options,
but it is also a nonrenewable fossil fuel that took eons to form. The
earth has a finite supply, and when it’s gone, it’s gone for good.
Unfortunately, it is very difficult to estimate exactly how much
is left because it is hidden deep in the ground. Not all areas have
been explored and tapped, so it’s difficult to know how long natural
gas reserves will last.
The United States produces about 85% of the natural gas consumed
in the country, and imports the remaining 15% from Canada and Mexico.
There appears to be enough domestic natural gas to last at least
another 50 years. When domestic sources run out, the U.S. can import
more from Canada’s large natural gas reserves. But even that will be
used up eventually.
The world’s supply of natural gas will last about 200 years by
some estimates. By then, civilized society, if it still exists, will
probably turn to methane, the main component of natural gas, for
heating needs. Methane is a renewable energy source that is produced
in many ways, including decomposition of plant material and sewage
treatment plants. Our local sewage treatment plant already captures
methane to use as fuel in their operations. Or perhaps the fuel of
choice in the future will be solar heat or hydrogen.
We have things pretty easy here in 2002. We don’t have to chop
wood to heat our homes, and there are no wolves howling outside our
door. It costs us less than $80 a month for natural gas to heat our
house in winter, plus gas for cooking, hot water and drying our
clothes. But our comfort comes at an environmental cost, because
burning even a relatively clean fuel such as natural gas pours more
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. So, to keep our personal
contribution to the earth’s pollution to a minimum and to conserve a
dwindling resource, we don’t waste natural gas.
Still, I trust that I won’t deplete the world’s resources and
bring on global warming with a modest increase in personal
consumption. Don’t tell Vic, but I’m turning that thermostat up to
65.
* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and
environmentalists. They can be reached at vicleipzig@aol.com.
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