Contents of RauwLetter September 2009
- September is Here
- Maintaining Boilers and Furnaces
- Cost Effective and Maintenance Free
- Hope for the Current Recession
- Rauw Energy Launches the Basement Campaign
- Referral Program
- Customer Coupon
Hope for the Current Recession
Recession is hard on almost everyone and there's not much that's good about it. Except perhaps from a carbon dioxide perspective.
Most scientists agree that CO2 is a major contributor to global climate change. As we consume energy such as electricity and fossil fuels in living our lives, the production of that energy emits CO2 (and other pollutants). On average U.S. consumption of electricity per person is 11.5 kW (kilowatts) while the average consumption of the rest of the world is 2.2 kW per person. However, as nations such as China, India and others develop, per person consumption of energy increases along with their CO2 output as they race to match the living standards of the average American. With Americans consuming energy at unsustainable rates and the average non-American wanting to do the same, the predicted effects of global climate change are at the very least, disturbing.
The recession may have given us somewhat of a reprieve.
In an August 11, 2009 article in the New York Times, Science Times section, Andrew C. Revkin, basing his comments on a report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, stated, “The economic downturn, combined with natural gas displacing some coal as a source of electricity generation, is projected to lead to a 5 percent decline in fossil-fuel-based CO2 emissions in 2009.”
Mr. Revkin then went on to point out however, “We expect an improving economy to increase CO2 emissions from fossil fuels by 0.7 percent in 2010.”
The hope of this recession is that as Americans have learned to live a little more simply, their habits will not revert back to old over-consumptive ways. In addition, as CO2 emitting energy production is being replaced with renewable energy technology such as wind and photovoltaic (partly financed by stimulus funds), emissions of CO2 will decrease. We can also hope that the slow down in other countries have given governments a chance to take a breath and look to their country's future as part of a sustainable planet.
