The Great Blackout of 2003

The great blackout that affected eight states, the Canadian province of Ontario, and several major cities yesterday - and continues to affect several areas in these regions today - should serve as a wakeup call to we foolishly and needlessly use electricity and how we've become too dependent on it. We live in a world where we are using too much electricity for too many things on too overloaded a system. We've relied so much on computers (I know, shame on me) that we almost have no idea how to get along without them. We have automatic doors that, in a power failure, aren't going to open, in buildings where the windows don't open because they are fixed. Hot out? Put on the air conditioning! A power failure - no air conditioning? Deal with it!

Everything we do is based on technology these days. We can't get light from outside to brighten our rooms because windows in most modern houses are not designed to capture natural light for illuminating rooms. Our telephones are increasingly cordless, and they have to be plugged in for power; even if the phone lines work, your phone will not. What if a blackout like this had happened in the winter? Many houses and buildings need electricity to operate heating systems. Cooking appliances are also dependent on electricity - even stoves. And how about everything we do with electricity that could easily be done manually - drying one's hair, exercising (a lot of exercise equipment uses electricity), shaving, brushing your teeth - brushing your teeth! Some people actually use electric toothbrushes!!

Electricity isn't generated by magic, you must understand. It's generated largely by power plants fueled by coal, oil - fossil fuels. The greater the demand, the more fossil fuels burnt. The more fossil fuels burnt, the more we contribute to. . . global warming.

The way we live physically - i.e., the way we plan and design our towns - puts a strain on electrical energy. We use electricity to light our shopping malls and their parking lots, not to mention their signs. We use it to keep our malls climatically controlled, as if walking outside on a Main Street in and old downtown in cold of winter or the heat of summer is too much of an inconvenience. To get almost anywhere, we need our cars - and while our cars are gasoline-powered, the gas station pumps rely on electricity just like anything else. Even in walkable cities and towns, there are many electrical uses we can do without. Do we really need all those lights in New York's Times Square? I could go on.

I think it's time to realize that we simply use too much electrical power for a lot of things that don't require it. We should learn to live more within our limits and save electricity for the important stuff - lighting streets, running our homes, et. al. - and not using it so much on trivial stuff like hair driers. (I never use one, and yes, I have hair!) Also, we should use electricity more wisely in circumstances where we absolutely do need it - and start designing a human habitat that can adapt more easily when there is a blackout and does not rely on too much electrical energy when there isn't.