Scott Adams, 2012! For a better America.
Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
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Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems that the art of building efficient houses is contained only in Europe. The houses in the US all seem to be made of wood, without much insulation. "Problems" that that causes are all dealt with using "efficient" heating or air conditioning systems. From what I've seen the same is true of Australia and New Zealand though. There you see a whole lot of portable electric heaters being used for the winter, which a…
I really would like to write a more articulate reply, but it's late and I'm tired, so I'll leave you with: I don't believe you. Portable electric heaters can be incredibly efficient, since they only heat the room in question. I don't know much about building materials, but the article suggested that most heat loss is through windows, so worrying about wood building seems unnecessary. Water conservation discussion nee…
I had a look through your sources and they convinced me that you were wrong about water conservation. Even if lots of places have low density and plenty of water, there are negative effects.
Surely using as little as necessary, most of the time, is a good policy.
"Per capita residential water use in the United States is more than four times as high as in England and five times as high as in Germany."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_...
There are many conclusions you can take from that, but a common one would be: Many people in the US use more water than necessary.
In terms of buildings, my experience with houses in Australia (almost zero insulation, single glazing) and northern Europe (astonishing volume of insulation, triple glazing standard) also suggests that there is something to think about here.
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, you are right. I retract my comment. Shame on me and my nine upvoters :) – edit: no irony
I still upvoted you for the last part of the post. I enjoy reading Adams's work, but he does do a fair amount of trolling.
I wouldn't really call it trolling. There's no intention of malice, he doesn't feign seriousness when making a controversial point, he is very self-deprecating, and everything is said interspersed with jokes (that of course are sometimes hit-or-miss).
In many ways, I think he uses one of the best techniques for coming up with new ideas and provoking discussions: asking questions (even ones that seem stupid at first -- and sometimes later as well), suggesting thought experiments, using humor, and above all, never taking yourself seriously.
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#44Interesting article. However, there's one aspect that I find a bit puzzling. I currently live in Germany and Adams' summary of tips how to build a greener house is pretty much a description of how houses have been built here for ages. I mean - the regular houses, not the ones considered particularly green. The general topic seems to be very big in this country, and apparently caters to a huge market. Almost everybody…
In Northern Europe it's similar to Germany.
Actually in my home town (Kuopio, Finland) the first passive/zero energy student housing (a 3 floor block of flats) is nearing its completion.
The US Ambassador to Finland Bruce Oreck visited the site a few weeks ago. He himself is quite active in this field.
Few pics here: http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&h...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house
Our ("socialist") method of operation is setting super strict national building requirements. Very soon you won't be allowed to build other than low energy housing. The people are quite happy to oblige, similar to them liking paying taxes. There will also be governmental subsidies for converting some of the remaining oil heating to geothermal (some 20% of the equipment acquisition cost + you can also deduct 3000€/year of the paid work done on the house from your personal taxes).
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought about this too. It would be really nice if there was a central compressor that will pump that cold gas into ACs and refrigerators of multiple homes. I think that will be a lot greener than the other stuff suggested by Scott Adams.
Finland is now doing that for industry and warehouse refrigeration, and for some large retailers too. It might eventually find its way into homes too.
Finnish retailers are also converting en masse to refrigeration units which have a cover/door. It is a big investment to convert, but it also saves about 35% of the energy.
All new installs are of course with the doors.
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#46Just as a counter-point, I recently visited a friend in Prague who is both earth-loving like Mr. Adams and an architect. She and her husband recently rebuilt their home, and it looks fairly nice for the area despite being quirky for the energy savings. They have a grass roof which I was told was actually low maintenance once they had it in. That said, they weren't 'idiots' and didn't buy into photovoltaics. Your mile…
Grass roof... they have a slightly bigger one at Ford Rouge River:
"The roof of the 1.1 million square foot (100,000 m²) Dearborn truck assembly plant was covered with more than 10 acres (40,000 m²) of sedum, a low-growing groundcover. The sedum retains and cleanses rainwater and moderates the internal temperature of the building, saving energy. The roof is part of an $18 million rainwater treatment system designed to clean 20 billion gallons (76,000,000 m³) of rainwater annually, sparing Ford from a $50 million mechanical treatment facility."
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#47Arrgh. Scott sometimes mistakes his ignorance for wit. He could've outfitted his home with heat-pipe solar thermal collectors, like the Thermomax ones. These things work well, even in the winter, even in cloudy, chilly old England, where they were designed. I suspect they'd do a pretty bang-up job in California. Connecting those up to the hot water heating the floors would've taken a big chunk out of his carbon footprint, even if he couldn't heat his home completely with them. They're worth it just for the hot-water preheat.
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I still upvoted you for the last part of the post. I enjoy reading Adams's work, but he does do a fair amount of trolling.
I wouldn't really call it trolling. There's no intention of malice, he doesn't feign seriousness when making a controversial point, he is very self-deprecating, and everything is said interspersed with jokes (that of course are sometimes hit-or-miss). In many ways, I think he uses one of the best techniques for coming up with new ideas and provoking discussions: asking questions (even ones that seem stupid at first -…
I say he trolls sometimes because, if I recall correctly, he's said that he (at least once) has made a post he doesn't agree with, so he could see how people responded. I'll see if I can find the post where discussed this.
I guess that's either trolling or performing a psychological study.
Edit: the closest I could come is "...I enjoy yanking the chain of people who think they believe things for actual reasons as opposed to taking a side." Which isn't very close. It's in an interview with him at http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/scott-adams... (Look for the second-to-last question)
Second edit: Found it! "As regular readers know, I sometimes like to make arguments for positions I don’t hold, just to test my viewpoint." (http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/12/next...) That's...actually not as damning as I remembered, given that his motivation is "let's see how logical I really am".
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really would like to write a more articulate reply, but it's late and I'm tired, so I'll leave you with: I don't believe you. Portable electric heaters can be incredibly efficient, since they only heat the room in question. I don't know much about building materials, but the article suggested that most heat loss is through windows, so worrying about wood building seems unnecessary. Water conservation discussion nee…
"Water conservation discussion need to be very localized." I live in Michigan. Tomorrow my car is going into the dealership to be examined to see if the flood it was in last week damaged it in any subtle ways, then it needs to be cleaned up since I wasn't quite able to get it dry enough to avoid it smelling. This snapshot gives you a reasonably accurate idea of our relationship to water around here. (I'm smart enough…
I live in the Netherlands, we have an abundance of water here.
The point is not the availability of water, it is the availability of fresh water. Most of the time it takes a lot of work to treat water in such a way that it suitable for consumption. And then there's the waste water processing. You can't just dump your waste water in nature, it has to be processed first, which takes some effort as well.
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really would like to write a more articulate reply, but it's late and I'm tired, so I'll leave you with: I don't believe you. Portable electric heaters can be incredibly efficient, since they only heat the room in question. I don't know much about building materials, but the article suggested that most heat loss is through windows, so worrying about wood building seems unnecessary. Water conservation discussion nee…
I'm not sure that this is what jvdh had in mind, but any pure-heating device is by definition 100% inefficient. Any physical device which does work produces heat as well (well eventually. The energy may feed into other processes before it ends up as heat). A 100% efficient device is one that produces work equal to the amount of heat (I think - my thermodynamics is a little rusty). A pure heater produces heat without…
My thermodynamics is rusty as well, but from experience I can say that using a central heating system where hot water is pumped through feels a lot better and seems a lot more efficient than an electric heater.