Episode 4: An Inconvenient Inconvenience

Episode 4: An Inconvenient Inconvenience

5/29/08
(Written on the grid)

The entire American infrastructure is based on convenience made possible by cheap, abundant oil: fast food, convenience stores, single-serve packages, drive-up windows, drive-by shootings, escalators, elevators, moving sidewalks. (This is beginning to sound like a Billy Joel song.) Do you see anything wrong with this model?

I like design. Let me rephrase that. I like good design. Good design, for me, takes full advantage of natural energy flows and minimizes dependence on fossil fuels. Very little design over the last century is good design. The general motto, according to William McDonough, was “If brute force is not working you’re not using enough of it.” If a building was cool, add fossil fuel. If a building was hot, add fossil fuel. One size fits all. (See International Style of architecture.) I’ll call this the Petroleum Paradigm (P2).

But the problem P2 is that when we built these inefficient buildings, building them was also cheap (in energy costs). Now we have all these obsolete behemoths that not only consume massive amounts of energy but they also took massive amounts of energy to build in the first place (embodied energy). Now that energy is expensive, we are faced with a dilemma: do we use lots more energy to build energy efficient buildings or do we embrace the embodied energy in existing buildings and try to retrofit them? There is no one answer to this. Every region, every microclimate, and every building needs to be examined individually. This will not be easy or convenient. But it needs to happen now. It needs to happen in American before next winter. Get on it people.

Unless…

This just in from NPR:
Exxon suddenly has a butt load of money. Have you heard about this? Who’d have guessed? They have pledged to invest 125 billion dollars to find more oil. Why didn’t I think of that?!?

More good news from NPR!
(Am I becoming the Beavis and Butthead of NPR?)

Hormel profits up 14% first quarter! Seems Americans are eating more Spam. Who’d have guessed? A 12-ounce can averages $2.62. Cheaper that gas! Put it in your belly and ride a bike.

Obama – I speak a little Spanish too.
Stewart – Come on, John.
Colbert – No bears, I promise.
Beck – You’ve already breached the topic.
Jack – Surf’s up

Peace and Post petroleum, Nedly, RfD

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