Holy Conservation (or) Sabbath, part XXVI
Richard M. Wright
The carbon footprint of the Baton Rouge metropolitan area grew at almost three times the per capita rate of the footprint of the average U.S. metropolitan area between 2000 and 2005, a national survey released Wednesday says. – Baton Rouge Advocate (May 29, 2008: 1)
The soaring price of gasoline (a product of the soaring price of petroleum) has forced Americans to examine more how they consume resources and/or conserve energy. Recent news reports about how people are moving to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles. Or choosing not to travel as much or as far.
A few weeks ago I had an interesting conversation with my excellent colleague Mikel Dasch who was talking about the problem of busyness. And how practicing Sabbath can mean avoiding busyness in ways that (among other things) conserve energy.
Instead of driving all over town unnecessarily or sitting at home watching (and using) every electronic device in the house we go out and play (for example) Frisbee golf. Setting the thermostat a couple degrees higher during the summer so the air conditioning does not need to run as much. Turning off lights that we are not using.
For a few months I have been not only turning off the family computer before bed – I shut off the power strip. (Because many electronics still draw power even when “off”. Plus the wireless/networking equipment runs off the power strip.) Even my computer equipment gets a little Sabbath.
The list of ways to use less energy is almost endless.
In her book Mudhouse Sabbath Lauren Winner also mentions eating food in season as well as food grown locally. Consider – how much energy does it take to transport food from there (where it grows, or where it grows at this time of year) to here? Stanley Hopp writes that “if every American would eat just one locally and organically produced meal per week, it would reduce our oil consumption by 1.1 billion barrels per week” (Creation Care: A Christian Environmental Quarterly, Spring 2008: 41). (That sounds rather high to me… but accurate or not surely more local food in season would use less energy/resources.) I confess that my own family still pretty much buys what we want from wherever.
My Jewish friends at Young Israel House at Cornell during the Sabbath did not turn on anything that used electricity. (Although they did not turn anything off either.) Orthodox Jewish people do not drive during Sabbath either. And how much energy would not be used if businesses voluntarily closed – dare we say Sabbathed – one day per week?
Practicing Sabbath becomes even more relevant as industrialized nations become increasingly concerned with the rising cost of energy and the need to lower our “carbon footprint”.
