I've learnt a new Japanese word, setsuden or "energy saving". With several nuclear power plants knocked out of action in March, the big concern was for how the country would cope with summer. Especially Tokyo. There has been plenty in the media and even in our mailbox about the lifestyle changes that will be enforced or recommended. Here's just one article: http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/06/20/saving-energy-changing-japan/ The threat being that if we use too much electricity they'll have to restart the rolling power cuts the city experienced in March.
The big concern with summer is, of course, air conditioners, which use enormous amounts of electricity. Thankfully the last couple of weeks have been relatively mild (mostly around 30 degrees Celsius or less). I've been wondering how the total usage of electricity has been going. A friend pointed me to this page (which is of course in Japanese): facebook.com/denkiinfo Apparently it is going really well, we'll see how if this continues as summer continues, August being the hottest month of the year.
I just see an interesting comparison here. Faced with this situation, most people are doing their best to conserve electricity – for the good of everyone. I wonder if Australians, or any Western nation would have the same level of voluntary self-control? I remember when the drought was going on in my native state, the government had to enact laws to make people use less water. Generally people seemed to resent the interference in their lives. Here? There seems to be a greater level of cooperation. Of course I have little in the way of proof, I'm just speculating, I guess. But I wonder . . . Sometimes Westerners wonder about the difference between a Group society and an Individual society – especially in such a western-looking society as Japan. I'm wondering if this is a classic example of the difference.
And I'm wondering, if you were faced with a similar situation, would you turn the air conditioner off in the middle of summer, as an act of helping out your city?
3 comments:
Ah Queenslanders! In Sydney under water restrictions we were all able to co-operate to bring down the total usage. And I don't know if you are up on green bag usage. This is to replace plastic bags. Australians can be very co-operative if they believe in the cause.
I guess so, Ken. Obviously I'm a cynic!
By the way, I've just found out that Blogger has been putting your comments into "Spam". I wonder why?
We just had our 'Climate Smart' visit from the QLD govt, including fluro bulbs, wireless power meter and insipid shower head. It's interesting how much voluntary (possibly more self-interested) change of behaviour that's driving in our house. We've learned the 'base level' of say 5c / hour and if we see something way above that and we're not expecting it, we hunt down the offending device.
I did a quick Google search for 'Climate Smart uptake rate' but didn't find anything useful.
The ABC does advertise during summer to not use your air-con unless you really need to. But I wonder about other radio stations/TV etc.
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