Earth Day: Getting Bigger and Better Every Year

Earth Day as it’s celebrated here in Santa Barbara, CA is an exhilarating and ever-growing affair.  This weekend, several thousand folks of all ages packed into a charming local park, where perhaps 75 vendors made us aware of everything from water conservation to clean transportation to promoting the bee population.  The beer and live music didn’t hurt either.

While everyone’s heart is in the right place, some of these ideas are stronger than others.  I had to snicker at a tiny refrigerator that condenses water out of the air, then sterilizes it.  In our semi-desert conditions, this produces a gallon of water for $0.16 (about a kWh) of electricity.  Not only is that about 150 times the prevailing rate from the local water company, but one needs to ask about the footprint of that kWh of electricity.  Regardless of how it’s generated, the idea is absurd.

There were a couple of others that didn’t pass muster as well, like the guy I’ve covered elsewhere whose (false) claim is that one can pedal a stationary bicycle for an hour and power one’s house for an entire day.   The issue: even a trained cyclist produces no more than about 400 Watts, and since the average house in the US uses 30 kWh/day, this would work only for a house the size of a broom closet.

But whatever.  Again, most of these folks have terrific ideas and wonderful, heart-felt beliefs about the path to a sustainable future.