Responsible Consumption: a soapbox for the day

ASPEN, CO

I shivered a little as snow fell around my feet. The mountains were completely obscured by the snow clouds, low hanging mists of white swirling around the ridges, leaving only the faintest hint of a mountain range visible. 


As part of a solar hot water design and installation course, I had the chance to tour some homes in the Roaring Fork Valley to see their renewable energy systems. We wound our way up the valley through El Jebel, Basalt, Snowmass, and Aspen. Nearly all of the homes we saw were both second homes and absurd in size. All of them had been designed and built for two adults, apparently on the premise that those two adults would like to share a house without ever having to see each other. For weeks at a time. It was always sort of my general feeling that no one should have two houses until everyone has one. This of course is a pretty oversimplified, childlike view of the world, but it just seems terribly wrong that the wealthy are consuming vast resources in terms of land, and materials for building houses, and the enormous amounts of energy used in the house, even when empty, while others have little to no access to even a sliver of those resources. 


Others in my class were willing to give credit to the owners for using renewable energy for their vast underused vacation homes, but I am not so generous. Building an enormous home halfway up a mountain when you already have another one (or two) cannot possibly be construed as anything as wasteful. 


This is the problem though, I think. Solar Electric and Solar Thermal are fantastic systems that use far more sustainable methods to produce energy than what most people are using. I am glad to see them catching on, and the more I know, the more I find myself seeking them out on rooftops and fields across the country, mentally tallying how many kilowatts a system might be generating. However, using these resources to continue to consume far more than any one person needs to is a poor use of the technology. The answer to the problem of resources, their overuse, and the ill effects on the planet is to consume less. But people don't like that answer. So instead people buy a giant oversized SUV that uses E-85, or even a hybrid, and take their two week vacation in their 20,000 square foot home that is powered with solar panels. Renewable energy and green design may be catching on, but responsible consumption is not. And there in lies the problem.