Am I Crazy? 8 New Ways To Save The Planet!

I was sitting in a hospital waiting room for a few hours with my daughter the other day when the boredom led to my mind wandering off in strange directions.

How good it would be, I thought, to be able to pedal away on an exercise bike while I was there, good for my health and would help to pass the time. Take it a step further and link the bike to the power supply and what a source of energy that would be. At this point my daughter pointed out that a hospital waiting room might not be the best environment for this idea as most of the people there might be too ill or injured to pedal, good point!

My mind did continue to wander however about ways to save energy or indeed, to add something back into the power system with some new and original sources of renewable energy, simple but effective ways to make the planet’s dwindling resources go further.

Gyms

Lets take my initial exercise bike idea a little further. How many gyms are there around the world? Many thousands I would imagine and in all of them people are pounding away on various instruments of torture trying to improve or maintain the way they look and feel. Why not make it compulsory for the gym to link all the machines to the electricity grid, I am sure the technology must exist to do this. Even just powering the lights and heat in the gym would make a big contribution.

Add in an incentive scheme to the gym members such as reducing membership fees if they pedal/row/run faster and everyone wins. This surely must be happening somewhere across the world already, if you know of anywhere that does it please let us all know.

Ban Ironing

This idea stems from one of my first posts, Pointless Things #1 – Ironing. If you read the article you will see what I think of ironing, it’s just a social norm introduced by earlier societies. Did ancient peoples worry about the odd crease here and there? I don’t think so.

I accept that heating an iron doesn’t use a vast amount of power however add up all the ironing activities across the world and a vast amount of resources are being used. If we could just come to some sort on international agreement to ban ironing then it would make an enormous contribution, surely wearing crumpled clothes is a price worth paying.

Could the principle be extended to other appliances? I would welcome your suggestions, for instance ladies, would you be prepared to give up your hair straighteners? You know it makes sense!

Escalators

Escalators are on the whole a good idea, I generally welcome a little help in going in an upward direction but why do we need the down escalator? Switch them off! (Excepting premises with no lift of course so as not to penalise people with mobility difficulties) Power usage for escalators would be halved at a stroke.

So I say yes to up and down with down!

Inclines

Fit a simple switch to all motor vehicles (emergency vehicles excepted) which will switch the engine off when going downhill, the ignition would remain on to assist with brakes, power steering etc but just think of all the fuel to be saved across the world. There would need to be a minimum gradient requirement to ensure that everyone didn’t have to get out and push.

I know we all like to have fun whizzing down the hills but something has to give. Just think how chilled and relaxing it would be being in a long line of traffic coasting serenely downhill. Add a system to charge the car battery from the heat generated by the breaks and voila, the perfect solution.

Cleaning

We have all seen all the lights burning in massive office and shop complexes overnight when the only activity is cleaning. I have simple solution which will have a profound effect – night vision goggles!

If the cleaning staff were doing delicate work which required more light they could be issued with a head torch as well, after all they only clean where they are looking.

Sails

I am an old romantic really, I just love to see those old sailing ships with all rigging up scything through the waves. There used to be nothing but sail (and oars) but now they just seem to be used for recreational purposes.

So why not fit all those supertankers, container ships and cruise liners with sails? They could switch their expensive engines off when they are out of port and glide along by the power of the wind, just think how much energy would be saved. Just think how many more people would be in gainful employment scurrying up and down the rigging. Just think how all those long lost skills like tying knots and making sails would come back.

Could we try the same principle with aircraft I wonder? Maybe not, I don’t think too many of us would be happy gliding across the Atlantic, may raise some slight safety issues!

Music Unplugged

Live music these day seems to be more power hungry than ever. Those monster speakers must take some energy to pump out that volume of sound and if you add up all the live gigs, night clubs, dance venues etc there must be huge savings to be made by simplifying things a bit.

How to simplify? Just unplug all that electrical equipment! I have seen all those ‘Unplugged’ performances and the musicians seem to enjoy it, it certainly shows off their true musical skills.

So only acoustic instruments allowed, I am sure all you aficionados of disco, drum & bass, trance music and what have you will soon get used to moshing around to a couple of guitars a harmonica and a piano, drums will still be allowed of course.

Hot Air

I live in the UK and off the top of my head I can think of quite a few debating chambers. We of course have the House of Commons, The House of Lords, various parliamentary committee rooms, The Welsh Assembly, The Scottish Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly and a multiplicity of council chambers. Spread the net a little wider and we can add European Parliaments in Strasbourg and Brussels (they had to have 2 to keep everyone happy).

Multiply that across the world and one thing is for sure, there is a great deal of hot air produced in these worthy establishments. There must be a way to harness all of this wasted energy for the benefit of us all.

It’s a win – win situation, the electorate feel they are getting more back for all those expenses, the politicians feel more self important than ever and we have a fantastic new source of renewable power.

If you have stuck with me this far (and congratulations if you have) you will probably have gathered that the date of publication may have some bearing on my motivation for the article!

Having said that sometimes a bit of lateral thinking can go a long way and maybe hidden somewhere in there is the germ of a brilliant idea. (If you spot any potential please forward to the relevant authorities – I hereby claim all intellectual rights!)

What do you think? Do you have any brainwaves of your own in this area that you would love to share with the world? You know I love to do things in 10′s so let me have your thoughts and I will add the best to the list.

Thank you for visiting the Top 10 Blog. If you like what I do I hope you will share with the world by way of the buttons below and to your left. If you would like to see more then please Subscribe, Follow and Like using the buttons at the top of each page.

*Image credits

World OK – Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Going Up – Sean Macentee Flickr

Night Vision – vegadsl / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Zoom Blur Guitar – nuttakit / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Green Energy – Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net