The actual topic I had in mind when I found the last paper clip was of much greater concern than the various mice and critters living in our house (funny story: the day I wrote that post, a mouse came out of a trash bag I was just carrying downstairs, and I accidentally stepped on it, without shoes; it’s living somewhere in our walls now).
At a random breakfast morning, a few of us debated on the recent change of Germany’s position on nuclear energy. Why this relates to our house? We came to a fast conclusion that in order to “save the planet” as one might say, we simply have to cut down on our energy consumption. We figured the same counts for alternative sources of energy. Thus, if we want energy that does neither stem from nuclear plants or coal power stations, we need to start saving energy. By now, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung has written a report on Germany’s balance on energy production and – hey! – the country could switch to green energy without taking cold showers or reading a book by candle-light. Nevertheless, to change the world, we’d still need to cut down. In our house, though, we pay all inclusive rents, a flat rate for gas, water and electricity. So what we do when our renting agency doesn’t fix the shower, the mold on the wall or the broken sink/oven/lighting, is consume. And that’s awful, and we know it. The worst part is: our agency doesn’t care. They actually want us to leave on the lights in the hallways, and I have so far failed to find a light switch for the entrance area. (I am, by the way exaggerating. We do care not to waste energy as much as we can most of the time.)
So here is me, in a seldom moment of peace-willingness towards the agency and a tad of goodwill, I unplugged the cable of my laptop, put on some candles and switched off the light. The other day someone turned off the light in the kitchen during the daytime, and to our surprise, there was still light (we DO have windows). In our house, I am obviously not the only one with environmental concerns (otherwise the discussion wouldn’t probably have started), and yet there is this gigantic invisible threshold to simply use less energy.
But now there was this realization, there are the candles and spring is coming up, so I’m keeping my hopes high. Maybe the agency will be nicer to us, too...
At a random breakfast morning, a few of us debated on the recent change of Germany’s position on nuclear energy. Why this relates to our house? We came to a fast conclusion that in order to “save the planet” as one might say, we simply have to cut down on our energy consumption. We figured the same counts for alternative sources of energy. Thus, if we want energy that does neither stem from nuclear plants or coal power stations, we need to start saving energy. By now, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung has written a report on Germany’s balance on energy production and – hey! – the country could switch to green energy without taking cold showers or reading a book by candle-light. Nevertheless, to change the world, we’d still need to cut down. In our house, though, we pay all inclusive rents, a flat rate for gas, water and electricity. So what we do when our renting agency doesn’t fix the shower, the mold on the wall or the broken sink/oven/lighting, is consume. And that’s awful, and we know it. The worst part is: our agency doesn’t care. They actually want us to leave on the lights in the hallways, and I have so far failed to find a light switch for the entrance area. (I am, by the way exaggerating. We do care not to waste energy as much as we can most of the time.)
So here is me, in a seldom moment of peace-willingness towards the agency and a tad of goodwill, I unplugged the cable of my laptop, put on some candles and switched off the light. The other day someone turned off the light in the kitchen during the daytime, and to our surprise, there was still light (we DO have windows). In our house, I am obviously not the only one with environmental concerns (otherwise the discussion wouldn’t probably have started), and yet there is this gigantic invisible threshold to simply use less energy.
But now there was this realization, there are the candles and spring is coming up, so I’m keeping my hopes high. Maybe the agency will be nicer to us, too...
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