Peace Talk — Summer 2006
The Quarterly Newsletter of Peace Action MaineIn March, PeaceAction Maine held a highly successful conference on building a sustainable Maine, in Farmington. One of the speakers was Dr. Sandra Wachholz, Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Southern Maine. Following are her remarks on What Light Bulbs Have to do With War.
While at first blush the connection between light bulbs and war may not necessarily be clear, the amount of electricity that we use in our homes, schools and offices has a direct bearing on our fossil fuel dependency and that is the powerful link. Environmental scarcities are a contributing factor in many wars around the world. The majority of the electricity that we use in our country is still being produced by fossil fuels that contribute to global warming. Recognizing this fact, the organizers of the “Sustainable Maine Conference” in March gave each participant attending this Peace Action Maine event a 60watt Compact Fluorescent Light bulb (CFL). This type of bulb uses 66% less energy and lasts up to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs. If every household in the US changed their five most-frequently-used light bulbs to CFLs, we would keep more than one trillion pounds of greenhouse gases out of the air. We could shut down 21 power plants and take a step away from our deep dependency on fossil fuels.
Not only were the conference organizers interested in fostering energy savings, but they undertook this easy task to offset the carbon emissions generated by the conference. They kept track of the miles that were driven to attend the conference and then calculated how many pounds of carbon were released in the travel. The participants drove a total of 11,900 miles and produced approximately five tons of carbon. By giving each person a CFL, the organizers were able to easily offset the staggering 11,000 pounds of carbon that went into the air that day. If you would like to offset emissions from your daily activities, trips, and events, simply check out any of the “carbon neutral” sites on-line. An easy first step is to replace your existing incandescent bulbs with CFLs. You can also commit the following figure to memory: one mile driven in the average US car = one pound of carbon dioxide; one kilowatt of electricity =one pound of carbon dioxide. These figures linger in my own mind and have helped me act in a more sustainable, “peaceful” manner. Good luck!