Tag: carbon emission

Refreshing

It's been a week and a half since I've joined a ThoughtWorks project in London. It's been such a refreshing change. The whole team lives and breathes Agile. The code base is not the cleanest I've worked on but actually easier to work with because the team made sensible compromises and did not being stubborn about ideas or patterns. (Actually we still have some way to go on the Mingle front, but that's another story.) We are doing TDD, continuous integration, pair programming with regular rotation, 9-5:30 hours, everyone are treated as equal, basically the whole nine yards! I can foresee the next three months will just disappear quickly. You know what they say, time flies by when you are having fun…

As for London itself, I was pleasantly surprised by all the good/new stuff they have. But at the same time, the Tube still pisses me off, with the never ending tunnels and the asinine system of having to swipe your ticket/card on exit. At least the travel cost is paid for by my company!

I'm going up to Shropshire this weekend to visit my parents. Instead of taking a 2+ hours train ride, I'll be driving a rental car up. I know, it's not environmentally friendly but consider the total amount of driving I haven't done in the last 7 years, I think I can take this carbon emission hit.

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Curious reaction

On Sunday morning, bright and early at 8AM, I'll be lifting off at Newark Airport and flying back to London for a 3 months temporary assignment with ThoughtWorks UK office. Why the UK and not assignment in the US? Well, being part of a global consulting company means I go wherever they need people. And working in London beats being on the bench and not earning any income for the company. Ethically it is not the most desirable assignment as it involves working with a company that deals with precious metal that apparently last forever and would cost you a month's salary…

More interestingly, whenever Eiron and I told our friends about my 3 months assignment the universal reaction is what we are going to do with our apartment, what will Eiron do with her job, etc. They react as if we are going to pack up and move to London for just 3 months! (The answer is we are not moving. Eiron will visit me a few times in London and racks up some air miles and carbon emission) Why would they react in this manner? I am really curious about it because moving to London for 3 months makes no sense whatsoever but yet, everyone assume this will be our plan.

Blogsphere, please enlighten me!

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Spoiled Living

After spending two weeks in India, I've came to realize how spoiled we live our lives in the western countries. Most people won't think they are spoiled but they really are. We take many things for granted, sometimes we think it is our 'rights' to have access to basic necessities such as clean water and electricity. Any of us would be, and should be, shocked to find that neither clean running water nor reliable electricity are something Indians take for granted, even in big, well developed urban city such as Bangalore.

We bitch and moan when the gas prices raises by a few cents or even dollars, when most people in India can't afford a motorcycle, let alone a big gas-guzzling SUV.

We drink water out of plastic bottle because it is trendy and convenient, not because the tap water is unclean and will make you sick for a few weeks.

We surround ourselves with electronic gadgets and electrical appliances because we crave our creature comfort and think electricity is abundant as the air we breath, not because we need to light our dwellings and preserve our food.

We live in large houses not because we need the space but because we can.

The way we live our lives in the western world is not sustainable in any shape or form. We as a nation are such a hypocrite when we ask developing nations such as India or China to curb their carbon emission and domestic consumption level when we live such spoiled lives.

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Gentlemen – Let’s start your smear campaign!

I am surprised that it lasts as long as it did. So finally the personal attack started on Al Gore. The Tennessee Center for Policy Research accuses Al Gore of hypocrisy over energy usage at his mansion.

The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh)
per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured
nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average.

20 times the national average? OH MY GOD!

Hang on though, I believe his 20 rooms mansion is rather large and the national average home is a lot smaller than his. May be not 20 times smaller, but certainly not comparable.

Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh—guzzling more than
twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses
in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore’s
average monthly electric bill topped $1,359.

WOW this is getting worse!

Again, let's take the figures from this paragraph. 22619 X 12 = 271,428, which is comparable to the 221,000 kWh annual usage mentioned before.

This just shows how statistic can be phrased to make you think the figure is worst than it is. And remember, by definition 'Average' implies there are less and more in the whole data set, so picking up on the extremes are like claiming everyone is average. Life doesn't work this way.

The more important omission from their short report are:

  • How many people occupy and use this mansion? How does the energy consumption per person at Al Gore's mansion compares to the 'national average'?
  • How is Al Gore's mansion compares to other similarly sized, private properties?

And the question for all the people out there (critics and proponents): Even if Al Gore is a hypocrite, what have you done or been doing to reduce your carbon emission?

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