Enlightened in the dark
When dark stormy nights threaten little New England towns, residents prepare for the worst.
Grocery stores are packed with last-minute shoppers buying extra bottles of water, canned foods and batteries for their radios and flashlights. Candles are always within reach for when the power inevitably goes out; nobody wants to be caught in the dark. And while most black-outs occur infrequently and don’t usually last all that long, it is terribly inconvenient to be without email for a few hours, and the power company’s phone lines are jammed with customers calling to complain. Meanwhile the children are giddy because to them, having no power is a novelty, it’s like camping.
This is the world I’ve come to know back home, a world where the lights always turn on when I flick the switch, air conditioning is never more than five minutes away, and where I take this wonderful power of electricity for granted.
The reason for my recent light-bulb moment of realization is an experience I had here in China.
I’ve realized that other world, where everything I needed was at my fingertips, and I didn’t have to think about what might spoil in the fridge, was a luxury. But now I’m in China, and I have to deal with energy consumption limits, spotty air conditioning and, yes, frequent blackouts. One such blackout occurred during the height of a typical hot and muggy late August day. It was a "scheduled" blackout, with an announcement written in "funny" English and posted on the bulletin board near the entrance of our building: "Dear foreign teachers, Please may I have your attention? Your building will have power cut from 5 in the morning until 6 in the night. Sorry for inconveniences this may cause."
The energy consumption procedures in this developing nation are well-publicized, and its notorious pollution problems caused by coal-burning power plants has been the subject of many feature stories and columns throughout the world. As an insatiable consumer of energy, the Chinese population’s demand currently outpaces its supply, according to a U.S. Energy Information Administration report, and will triple, surpassing the United States' energy demand by 2020. As a result, frequent blackouts occur across the country, and people are used to it.
I, on the other hand, am not.
Throughout the night before the 5 a.m. cutoff time, I couldn’t sleep. I was worried that I would wake up in the dark and forget where I was, I was worried about the eggs in the fridge, and I was worried about not having e-mail for 13 hours!
But when I awoke, I knew where I was, I forgot about the eggs and I took a day off from the computer, and I never felt more relaxed. Sure, it was hot and I had no idea about what was going on in the rest of the world, but there was nothing I could do about it and nobody to file a complaint with. Somebody turned off the electricity, and I was dealing with it like a kid going camping.
The experience brought with it an entirely new perspective on guaranteed electricity, and the global warming debate. Being from a relatively liberal background in a relatively liberal part of the United States, I thought I was well-informed about "green issues" and "living green." And, like many others, I was doing my part in heeding the call for more sustainable living practices, like changing to those new "green" light bulbs, riding my bike and recycling. But I realized that I’m still a westerner and that there is a lot more to be done.
China is growing fast, but also suffering because of it. The country is experiencing the largest industrial revolution in history, but it’s following the old model, and who can blame them? The fact is that the United States, Britain and the West experienced the same revolution before pollution was known to be harming the environment.
We did most of the damage causing global warming, and now we’re asking China to curb its pollution while we continue to consume at or near the rates we always have. China is responding with ecological initiatives that are slow to take effect and difficult to implement. Culturally, the Chinese have long been stewards of their streets; the tradition of daily sweet sweeping has been around for centuries, and while this takes care of litter and trash, it does nothing to change the effects of fossil fuel consumption.
It is up to the informed to take action, to demand our government to lead by example, to change its energy policy, and to curb its own energy consumption. Changing a light bulb isn’t going to change the world. It’s going to take action, sacrifice and determination to attain sustainable living practices.
Living a day without electricity will certainly open one’s eyes to the possibilities, it did mine, but it’s not something that should be forced, we should want to do it for the greater good. So I’m asking you, turn off the computer, and sit down and write a letter to your representative demanding — not asking — for change, but make sure it’s on recycled paper. And I’ll do my part while I’m here by curbing my consumption, and helping the Chinese government educate its citizens to make change an inevitability.