Alternative Energy

So as I listened to NPR on the way to the coffee shop, the news story started with “Here’s a sentence you’ve never heard before” and followed up with something about the US having an energy conference with Cuba. Okay, yes, I’ve never heard that sentence before, but I have to say I was a little disappointed. As far as never-before-heard sentences, I expected something more exciting, because my head certainly started running through all sorts of different possible sentences I’d never heard.
“My mother was a tutu in her former life.”
“Hark, a purple iPod!”
“No, Mommy, I don’t want candy.”
See, all these sentences create images that – well, to me – are a bit more interesting than a news story about an energy summit. But then again, I would seriously like my next car to be a hybrid minivan (minivan because I need it, hybrid for the environment). And I just saw an article about the H-Haus, a new “concept” house at this year’s Home and Garden show made of concrete and super energy efficient and environmentally friendly, the house I would love to live in because it would not only be cool, but also good for the earth.
See, I’d like to be a tree hugger, but I’m too lazy, cheap, and practical. I don’t print out many stories these days; I try to work only on my computer. But is the energy cost of powering my computer greater than the waste of trees from printing on paper or of writing draft after draft on sheet after sheet of paper? I read somewhere that paper bags are actually worse for the environment than plastic bags, and we definitely reuse plastic bags.
I didn’t stay to hear the story about the US-Cuban Energy Summit, though I’m sure it will be covered in the newspaper (that kills trees and prints up way more copies than are read each day) and on the news (which uses oodles and oodles of electricity to record, transmit, and watch). Should I clean with sponges (which – ignoring how many germs they carry – have to be manufactured in a plant of unknown energy efficiency and environmental respect), paper towels (consumable, use-once-throw-away, fill ever-growing landfills), or some sort of disposable, disinfectant wipe (that also fills landfills)?
I read a while ago that the first diaper ever used still exists. Clearly, items at the bottom of landfills don’t get the air they need to biodegrade naturally and thus remain. I can’t even count the number of diapers I’ve disposed of in the last five years (two kids), and compared to that, everything else just seems like minutia.
We live close to my husband’s work, and environmentally, that’s a good thing. The less time he’s on the road, the less fuel he’s using. But then, our house was built in 1917 and is not the most energy efficient. So we probably use more fuel to keep the house warm (since there are recognizable drafts by the windows) than we save with a shorter commute.
And so we constantly debate moving to the suburbs, to a new house, with a better school system. But however we break it down, we end at an impasse.
Environmentally: energy efficient house vs. longer commute (= less time at home)
Education: great (though expensive) private school vs. (is it good enough?) public school
Restaurants: great diversity vs. a bunch of chains
Socially: great neighborhood and friends vs. probably great new friends and safe neighborhood
House: lots of character, no central air, annoying crappy kitchen vs. cookie cutter open floor plan with awesome big modern kitchen.
Other: large property taxes and no public indoor pool vs. being far from our friends and becoming stereotypical suburbanites, which we know is a total mental block that we’ll probably love when we do it.
So what do we do?
I know this had nothing to do with my mother being a tutu in her former life (she really wasn’t – obviously, since that was a sentence never before heard – and couldn’t be, since former lives would have to be as creatures that possess life). Then again, I’d hate to offend any ballerinas, or tutus for that matter, that may believe that tutus do in fact live.