U-P(unplug), U-P(unplug), and Away
This week has been a continuation of my sustainable behavior process. I have continued to keep it dark in my room when necessary though I feel a sense of nocturnal development enveloping not only my body but mind. Interestingly how the statistics from the last post came to light, I have become more of an academia, spending less time on my futon in my room watching Law and Order SVU and more time in the library getting more work done. This behavior challenge has not only helped the world but it has also helped me. Since the first post, and even before that in some aspects, my roommates and I have acknowledged that electricity is wasted and we have a stake in whether or not that will continue. With my schedule, I am not too overwhelmed or rushed so I am able to take notice of the lighting situations in my room and therefore we use the minimum that we need to in terms of electricity use. If only my parents saw this now haha. The only thing that we may abuse is the speakers because my roommate, who DJ’s, is blasting music all day and all night. During the daylight hours, and my almanac says sunset will be at 5:59pm this evening, we leave the lamp and top lights off while we leave the window shades wide open flooding our room with natural light (Double entendre right here). Though I must say, on the very rare occasion where I have friends yelling at me to hurry up and get downstairs and I happen to leave the top light on, upon opening the bedroom door I am minutely yet noticeably bothered by it. Additionally, at night time, we switch off the television, lights, bathroom lights, computers and all other appliances, leaving only our cellphone chargers running on electricity. Though my other two roommates have not been the biggest proponents of not having the bathroom light on as a nightlight. The other night, after one of my buddies went out and had a few beers (natural light, he is 21), he came home to find us all asleep. Apparently in some rush to get to the bathroom (still uncertain what the rush was), he walked headfirst into the bathroom door, waking the three of us with a loud thud. Gratefully he was unharmed, though the pain in my abdomen due to uncontrollable laughter initiated a pattern of soreness in my stomach for the hours and day to come. At least my sustainable behavior yielded me some quite hysterical, unintentional humor.
What the article by Aristeidis Karalis shed light upon was the continuing use of electricity and how we can change that practice. As the people conducting the study were developing new ideas for transmission of electrical waves, which are the energy source, they indicated that there were be exponentially less electricity use if the technologies were smarter and able to charge or use power when necessary. The study does not abandon or lower the usage of electricity, rather it tailors it to be functional only when there is a specific desired goal. By “cutting the cord” and becoming less dependent on bulky interconnected wire systems, your carbon footprint and electric bill will be lowered exponentially. The only way that it doesn’t relate to my behavior is because I am unable though very willing to rid my quarters of all up to date electrical systems for newer, more expensive and efficient ones. (Karalis, 2009).
-(entendre)
Works Cited
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