Conserving energy

After I propose to stop smoking, using recycled paper notebooks and using better supermarkets plastic bags, I was forced to think of a fourth means of contributing to the preservation of nature.

So, we lived the time of the risk of blackout energy of the Cardoso government, nothing more obvious thing to do: save energy.

Okay, but how? Not washing our body? Living in the dark? Do not watch TV or internet?

No, I could not think of anything very sophisticated at the time, because I lived in a cubicle that did not consume very little electricity.

The only sensible action that I thought was replace my common incandescent bulbs with electronic bulbs, most economical, durable and expensive.

What was the result? I do not know. There are no real ways to measure the impact of isolated individual actions like this.

Then, my life was increasing, I was moving to bigger houses, buying more electrical gadgets and today, I paid a fortune to use energy. I do not know if we still live so intensely the risk of blackouts in Brazil, but that time was important for learning the Brazilian people in general, who became more rational in relation to electricity.

Still using electronic lamps, now a little cheaper. I think people should even do your duty and save what you can, but I think there are limits and there is no way in the end, we must build more electrical plants. This somewhat resembles these games administration of cities and farms, such as Sim City or Farmville, but what more can I think? What will live forever in the same level of consumption?

Sure, new technologies will reduce energy consumption through more economical products, but in the meantime, we consume without fear of blackouts.

This reminds me of a story I once saw in TV in these news programs at lunchtime, when we normally see local reporters doing unimportant matters, but curious.

A reporter bothered to mention the theme of the popular economy. How can people be economical. And of course, the thing descended into the anecdote. Soon, there was talk of the Avars, the miserable, the hand-to-cow, those kind of people who save not only out of necessity but for pleasure or addiction.

This is a serious matter and we'll discuss it in the future, but back to the story, the reporter came, through clues from neighbors, at a poor and simple man, a resident of those little towns in countrified areas, those that living in simple houses with used worn and old furniture.

It was not just a matter of saving, but of addiction, but a kind of addiction coming from a simple drug addict  and worthy of compassion, because really simple and with not much money.

The person in question, a thin old man sixty years old, more or less, looking worn out by life, was proud of his habit. Finally, the reporter asked for an example of their diligence in saving.

The old man then came the little room of his house, grabbed the clock hanging on the wall and turned it around. He then placed two small batteries in the device and it started working. The reporter asked what that meant and he said that batteries cost money. Soon, there was no point getting the clock running, showing the time for no one and consuming the battery if the resident was not in home. So whenever he comes out, he took the batteries, and when he returned, replaced batteries, adjusted clock pointers and life went on.

There is a profound lesson to be learned in this story.