Baby, it’s cold outside -- and inside, too

NATURAL PERSPECTIVES

Winter has arrived. It’s freezing inside. OK, not literally -- but

it feels like it.

Every year, Vic and I struggle to see how long we can last without

turning on the heat. I don’t know why. It’s just a silly habit that

we got into when we lived in Connecticut and had to pay $200 a month

for fuel oil.

That was back in the late 1970s when we were poverty-stricken

graduate students. We kept the thermostat set at 55 degrees, turning

it up to 60 only when we had company. But our heating bills still

gobbled up nearly a quarter of our monthly income during the winter

months.

Then we moved here to the land of fun and sun. During our first

California winter, we didn’t use the heater at all and were still

comfortable. Over the years, we’ve become sissies. Now, I edge toward

the thermostat as soon as indoor temps drop to the low 60s. We

usually make it to late November or early December before we turn the

heat on. Last week, I couldn’t take it anymore. I turned the

thermostat up to 65 when Vic wasn’t looking. You should have heard

him.

“Did you touch that thermostat?” he asked in that accusatory tone

that only miserly, skinflint, tightwad husbands can assume. He must

have sensed his pennies going up the heat vent.

“Yes,” I replied, shivering. “I’m coming down with a cold.”

“Put on a sweater,” he replied.

I already had on a sweatsuit and was wrapped in a blanket. My

eyelids had frozen shut. My blood was about to congeal. “Please,” I

begged, “I’m sick.”

Sick of being cold was what I really meant. Now don’t get me

wrong, I certainly don’t waste energy. When it gets cold, I put on

warmer clothes. Our down comforter keeps us warm at night. The sun

usually warms the house enough in the daytime that the heater rarely

fires up if we set the thermostat at 60.

But after the sun goes down and before we crawl into our snuggly

bed, it seems colder. In the evening, I want to burn some natural

gas. I want to consume some of our precious natural resources. I

yearn to wantonly squander fossil fuel and contribute to global

warming. In the evening, it’s personal warming that is of most

interest to me.

Using natural gas for heat is a good option. It is more energy

efficient to burn natural gas in a home heater than it is to heat

with electricity. Natural gas is certainly a better, cleaner-burning

fuel than the home heating options of yesterday.

My grandparents heated their homes with coal. Before their era, my

great-grandparents used woodstoves for heat. Their parents and

grandparents were pioneers who heated their small log cabins with a

fireplace fueled by wood they chopped themselves. My

great-great-grandfather’s sister, who homesteaded in Indiana,

shivered by the fireplace all winter while the wolves that howled

outside the door made her hair stand out “a yard or two long.” Home

heating, like many other things, has evolved for the better.

Natural gas is a good, clean fuel compared to some other options,

but it is also a nonrenewable fossil fuel that took eons to form. The

earth has a finite supply, and when it’s gone, it’s gone for good.

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to estimate exactly how much

is left because it is hidden deep in the ground. Not all areas have

been explored and tapped, so it’s difficult to know how long natural

gas reserves will last.

The United States produces about 85% of the natural gas consumed

in the country, and imports the remaining 15% from Canada and Mexico.

There appears to be enough domestic natural gas to last at least

another 50 years. When domestic sources run out, the U.S. can import

more from Canada’s large natural gas reserves. But even that will be

used up eventually.

The world’s supply of natural gas will last about 200 years by

some estimates. By then, civilized society, if it still exists, will

probably turn to methane, the main component of natural gas, for

heating needs. Methane is a renewable energy source that is produced

in many ways, including decomposition of plant material and sewage

treatment plants. Our local sewage treatment plant already captures

methane to use as fuel in their operations. Or perhaps the fuel of

choice in the future will be solar heat or hydrogen.

We have things pretty easy here in 2002. We don’t have to chop

wood to heat our homes, and there are no wolves howling outside our

door. It costs us less than $80 a month for natural gas to heat our

house in winter, plus gas for cooking, hot water and drying our

clothes. But our comfort comes at an environmental cost, because

burning even a relatively clean fuel such as natural gas pours more

carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. So, to keep our personal

contribution to the earth’s pollution to a minimum and to conserve a

dwindling resource, we don’t waste natural gas.

Still, I trust that I won’t deplete the world’s resources and

bring on global warming with a modest increase in personal

consumption. Don’t tell Vic, but I’m turning that thermostat up to

65.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].