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Sweaters are for Winter! Energy saving and thermostat settings and how an easy shift can affect our kids for the better.
Editor’s Post by Deborah Hetrick Catanese
(Could we use some Common Sense instead of wasting our resources? Read this NOW to learn how energy saving and thermostat settings can help our kids!)
It’s a perfect summer day…hot, sunny, and dazzlingly bright! Your young children wake with an abundance of joy, knowing today is Water Park and Arcade Day! You run through the mental checklist as you all buckle up in the car… Sun Screen, check. Water bottles, water shoes, check. Lots of coins saved up from the piggy banks, check! You start the ignition…WAIT! You forgot the SWEATERS! That arcade is so freezing cold that your glasses steam up when you walk back outside!
So, my stout-hearted Mamas, does this ever strike you as RIDICULOUS? What about WASTEFUL, as in electricity? This has set me to thinking. And as my husband and kids know so well, when I start to “Think” with a Capital T, it often leads to Trouble with the same kind of T 😉
So yeah. I’m THINKING all the way back to the early days of our country, when there were some wise men. As a school child, I remember hearing about our Founding Fathers, guys like Ben Franklin, George Washington, and Tom Paine. Some of the simplest statements from back then still hold a world of truth for me today, such as:
Waste not, want not.
— Ben Franklin (1706-1790)
As mothers, we hold the future in our bellies through nine months, and then spend the next twenty or so years devoted to helping our children prepare themselves. But how does it sit with you when you witness a plain truth like “Waste not, want not” being debased or ignored by “leaders” from the opposing ends of the spectrum? (Unfortunate that we have to use such a colorful word like spectrum for those very limited “it’s either black or white” points of view, isn’t it?) Speaking for myself, it ticks me off! And I think most mothers know deep down inside that saving some resources for our kids has NOTHING to do with politics.
So maybe we need to be the “Founding Mothers” for a new generation. Maybe we can group together to say, “Enough is enough! We want a non-polluted world with food, water, air, and energy resources to share, FOR OUR CHILDREN! Waste in our world is not only wrong and short-sighted, but WAY unnecessary in many cases.”
So let’s encapsulate the situation: During the hottest summer in modern record, we still have to carry sweaters in large purses and blankets in our diaper bags to shield ourselves from all the bone chilling indoor air! Do we really want to waste our finite resources and disfigure our landscape for excessive AC? Can we see the conjunction of energy saving and thermostat settings as a small easy step to achieve great gains?
So, how hard would it be to turn up the thermostat TWO DEGREES in all the freezing indoor environments in offices, bars, restaurants, and retail establishments? Imagine how much energy would be saved if this happened throughout our vast country! (Is there anyone out there with a mind for math and research who wants to help me quantify this two degree shift into actual energy savings?)
Now, I realize that some of you LOVE it freezing cold. But I am not asking to make your indoor air hot and sweaty like a steambath and make your life oh so miserable. Just two small degrees could make a world of difference in moderating the temps a tad AND in saving resources.
So, if I am right, many of you lovely Mamas do not want to put all your personal energy into teaching your children well, while idly watching people WASTE things unnecessarily! So today, I am going appeal to our followers on Project Motherhood! Let’s start our own campaign:
Save Some Resources for our Kids: Sweaters are for Winter!
Am I naive enough to think that this single effort to link energy saving with thermostat settings will solve everything? Of course not. BUT if we refuse to take the easy steps, how will we ever be able to take on the tough issues? Is “apathetic” really the example you want to give your kids? In my opinion, it’s “neither impractical nor utopian for us to imagine” effecting this obvious need for change.*
So let’s look back to 1776 once more… back when Tom Paine (Mr. Common Sense himself) said: “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it the superficial appearance of being right.” These words opened some eyes back then in our fight for independence. Can they be a rallying cry again now?
Who wants to help? Please respond to me in the comments section! “Like” it on Facebook, twitter it out to the masses. Design some T-shirts, anyone? Tell me YOUR pet peeve about wasting resources!
And then sweetly ask the manager in the restaurant tonight to adjust the Air Conditioning… “Just two little degrees, please. We forgot our winter coats! Thank you so very much!” If that fails, tell them why you are not staying to eat, as you take your shivering family and your cold cash to a less wasteful establishment!
We can do this, for our kids. Common Sense, circa 2012. (Note: It’s NOW 2014…Look around…Has anything changed?! dhc) Join me. Join the campaign to make it clear that linking energy savings and thermostat settings are a positive step for all of us.
Two Degrees, Please! Sweaters are for Winter!
Fashionably Yours,
Deborah
*Scott Russell Sanders, from his Keynote Address, “The Way of Imagination”, Chatham University, Pittsburgh, PA, August 3, 2012.
P.S. My promised August Post about lovely Audra will be in September, when hopefully, sweaters will actually be weather appropriate!
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It happens here all the time, I live in FL. It’s 90 outside and it 50 inside. We have asked the managers to turn down the air a couple of times and they usually will seat us somewhere where there is no vent, but the money that is being wasted is insane. I always have a sweater in the car.
Thank you, Judy, for your swift response! Let’s hear from the rest of you ladies!
Deborah
I was just hearing (and experiencing!) this very complaint. Friends who are here from Europe were stunned at the intensity of the air conditioning in every store and restaurant they enter. “This can’t be good for you!” they say. That is so true–for individuals and the environment. I’ll do as you recommend and ask these establishments to lower the temp JUST TWO LITTLE DEGREES, PLEASE!
Laurie
That’s the spirit, Laurie! Knew I could count on you 🙂
This is a great post!
My pet peeve about wasting resources is people who throw everything into the garbage when there’s a recycling can right next to the garbage.
California heard from! Thank you, Sonya!
Well said, Deb! I am all for T shirts! Just two little degrees, so true that it would make a world of difference in saving energy!!! Go for it!!
Knew I could count on ya, Linda!
I’m with ya Deb, way too much common sense for most to grasp, it’s the overlooked thing’s that can make the most impact!! made me think..thanks…
I agree, Michael…it is indeed “overlooked”. Perhaps we can stop that with our “Two Degrees Please” campaign.
I especially love when stores are not only freezing inside, but also leave their doors open so the air conditioning blasts out on people that walk by on the street – don’t think we’re going to un-warm the planet by air conditioning the outdoors! Here’s to smarter systems and seasonally appropriate wardrobes! Two degrees please!
Yeah, air conditioning the outdoors is not gonna work! I LOVE your Common Sense, Christina 🙂
And from another Floridian, my cousin in St. Pete who just emailed me the following: “omg, that has been the bane of my existance for yrs!! 2 degrees is all it would take and make a huge difference. The dept stores say it’s because they sell more if it’s cooler??!! No, I run out faster!!!!!. Love this post!!”
Congratulations Deborah for a fine written post once again! Congratulations Allison for a wonderful blog and forum to have to reference on so many levels of importance and fun for so many people. I really “hear” All of the comments so far ladies! “2 degrees warmer”, “European’s KNOW this is not good”, “doors open with air conditioning running full blast”, “seasonally appropriate wardrobes”, YES to all of these and especially on throwing everything in the trash when there are divided bins. The abundance of irresponsible behavior never ceases to amaze me and the people that do it are doing it to themselves and the children and family that they are trying to protect! I think that stuns me the most. Bring back and continue to learn History! Thanks again Deborah and Allison.
Thanks so much for your comment, Kathy. It made me remember that often the difference between irresponsible behavior and acting responsibly is simply awareness.
Here, here for “Two Degrees”, you are so right about this and it is so important to show that no matter how small, we can help change things for all mankind!
What a great example of how changing by a few degrees can help all mankind – well written Deborah!
Thank you, Vicki! We don’t need to have our sweat turn into ice when we walk indoors, right?
Right On!!!
I taught reading at a summer camp site (Martin Luther King School on the North Side). It was so cold inside the building that the children and I had to wear hoodies, sweatshirts or sweaters over our shorts and tee shirts. Mind you, this was during a drought and one of the hottest summers on record! The children were either perspiring or shivering. This could not have been a healthy way to spend their summer. Two degrees would have helped.
I encourage everyone to think about this comment by Betsy! This is not a joke! It is real, and people are going through this ALL OVER OUR COUNTRY! Two Degrees, PLEASE!
I agree that sweaters are for winter. While I just bought some beautiful womens knit sweaters at Burlington Coat Factory for the coming season, I wouldn’t want to start carrying them around on an 80 or 90 degree day. Winter clothes is made to keep you warm, but it should be keeping you warm when mother nature makes it cold. (Though I can’t wait to need them because I definitely prefer it colder).
Me, too, Faye! I love those sweaters when the chill air arrives, thanks to Mother Nature! And by wearing them, we don’t have to turn the furnace on too high, too early, either!
very nice information, i would surely come again, thanks!