"The Economics of Grid Defection" (What is a 'utility in a box'? - k)

[hunter]

8. Please stop.

I'm an equal-opportunity hater of all high energy "consumer industry" technology.

In the long run a single birth control prescription will save much more energy than the solar panels on some wealthy person's roof.

If I give $1000 to Planned Parenthood it goes a lot further than if I spent a $1000 on solar panels.

If I buy a decrepit old car for $800 and don't drive it much, that goes a lot further than buying a Tesla and commuting a hundred miles a day, five days a week just to pay for it.

If I live in a place where I can walk to the grocery store, and I don't generally buy refrigerated or frozen foods, and I feed "leftovers" to the compost heap or the animals, then I don't need a refrigerator/freezer, and the grocery store doesn't need so many either.

If I'm mostly vegetarian all that high energy grain doesn't have to be fed to meat animals.

If I live in a city and don't need a car, if I walk to work and back, and my house is warm enough when I close the windows, and cool enough when I open them...

Well, anyone can see where this is going.

To me the "highest techs" don't require fossil fuels or nuclear energy.

Plant a robust "heirloom" species, even an heirloom that became such just this year, power a water well with a solar panel no batteries required, invent a better vaccine or a better form of birth control, or a new inexpensive way to safely turn poop into fertilizer... these are the highest technologies of humans.