Perhaps you remember that line from the 1986 Top Gun movie. I guess it is only natural to enjoy going fast … but I also remember the energy crisis of 1978 where we were asked to conserve fuel by driving slower. Do you remember when speed limits were reduced to 55 mph on the Interstate highways to save gas and of course save lives if there were crashes?
We are hypocrites today when we hear wailing that we need to reduce our carbon footprints, yet we are increasing speed limits. There is now a 41-mile stretch of Texas State Highway 130 between Mustang Ridge and Lockhart that has a speed limit of 85 mph, the nation’s fastest. At least nine states allow drivers to legally cruise at 80 mph on highways.
Engineers know the resistance goes up exponentially faster as speed rises above 60 mph. Here is a short table of the relative energy required based upon the
carefully researched range estimates for my Tesla Model S. It shows that at 80 mph, you are using 34 percent more fuel than at 65 mph. If we say we care about our energy future, why are we so comfortable allowing such high speeds on our highways?
By the way, I feel like I am going to get run over if I stick to the posted speed limits, especially with people behind me driving like racecar drivers, weaving in and out of lanes to gain a few seconds’ advantage on their trip.
President Jimmy Carter became unpopular because he did the right things, asking people to slow down and to be a bit less comfortable in their homes by lowering thermostats during the winter and raising them during the summer. Every degree reduced the energy for heating and cooling by about 8 percent, so it matters. Three degrees equates to a 24 percent reduction in heating or cooling energy use.
In previous blogs, I have pointed out how egregious it is to consider supersonic flights for domestic travel. Do we really need 100-inch TVs? How about all those SUVs and all-terrain monster trucks rather than small cars or perhaps golf carts for local streets in communities designed to avoid our current commuting and recreational consumptive patterns?
I fully understand how modern whaling methods replaced the seemingly outdated and inefficient methods of the 1800s. However, no country today seems focused on sustainable fishing methods in the big oceans, so we are depleting them quickly. To see this yourself, watch the new movie, David Attenborough’s Ocean, which may be his last, and I would rate it his best.
Convenience and the pursuit of near-term profits seem to dominate the user perspective, so why are we saying we all should be doing our part to live sustainably on this planet?
I volunteer at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut, over the summer where I explain to visitors the challenges of being a whaler and navigating the planet’s oceans. I share the evolution from reclaiming valuable and useful material from the bodies of dead whales when they washed up on shore. But, as demand for these products increased, they moved to near-shore whaling, and then to factory ships that processed the whale out at sea. As a result, whalers depleted the near-shore whales, then the ones within a day or so’s sail, which led to the factory ships and voyages typically lasting 3 to 5 years. Had petroleum not been discovered in 1859 in Titusville, PA, there would be no whales remaining in the oceans.
Why wasn’t anyone paying any attention to the pattern back then?
Why aren’t we paying attention to the pattern in our lives today?
Great article!