Sustainable Lifestyles

A brief discussion is on global warming, and also about the interconnection of various issues like water, energy saving, material wastage etc. This note limits one aspect of reduction of electric power consumption through a lifestyle change : dispensing with ironing or pressing for clothes. The note also points out to the loss of jobs of those who iron clothes now as their livelihood and suggests an alternative. Also given some ideas of lifestyle changes for those who go to expensive hotels. One main idea is to point out that we all need to learn to change high consumption lifestyle (in addition to find scientific and technological solutions for energy efficiency, water efficiency etc.)

  1. Nowadays there are lots of discussions about global warming, climate change etc. Many meetings in five star hotels and lots of glossy printed books. Talking about these issues has become a big service industry. Even within our country, I estimate it to be about Rs.5000 crores or more. At the global level it is much much more.
  2. I do not think that all the basic issues raised in such debates are all irrelevant. But there is overplaying of narrow issues and pushing of a few panaceas as the only solutions. These are trends one need to guard against.
  3. One crucial issue is to reduce consumption. Yes our per capita and individual consumption of basic resources - water, energy and purity of air, materials etc... have to come down. This cannot be achieved by going back to primordial state of existence nor by denying vast majority of poor people an access to modern life in the name of 'saving the earth'. In actual reality, all these issues are interconnected. Water consumption can be reduced by injection of a few newer technologies : drip irrigation (even for household gardens), by water recycling which will also require some energy etc. Similarly waste management - reducing waste materials to the minimum requires high quality science and advanced technologies at work.
  4. This is in the way of background to the whole work of ecological sustainability and making Mother Earth to be continuously merciful to us. But in this article, I am giving a simple suggestion which can contribute some small amount in real terms if all human beings start practicing it. IT IS ABOUT IRONING OF OUR CLOTHES. When I was a child going to the school in the village or later in Palayamkottai or even at Bombay in Colleges (in the sixties) ironing of clothes was not there for most students. Nowadays ironing or pressing is very crucial. I am aware a lot of self-employed simple people depend on it for their earning. (I will give a solution for them when I am going to say 'DO NOT IRON YOUR CLOTHES')
  5. Suppose we develop a lifestyle as a part of our civilised culture not to iron clothes after of course good washing (cleanliness is a must) do you know how much electricity is saved ? (let alone the savings of burning charcoal in non-electric irons being used !). A back of the envelope calculation will indicate that annual electricity thus saved will be equivalent to an electric power station of 250 MW! This will be for each year. Also as people get more income, this can go to much higher level in years to come. Can we do a beginning? If many developed countries join, world will save so much of unnecessary electric power consumption, thus contributing to lesser global warming gases.
  6. Once such a decision is done and it becomes a fashion, it may lead a number of new scientific and technological researches for creaseless clothes and non-energy consumption pressing/ironing techniques.
  7. Now for the immediate what to do with a few tens of thousands of persons who earn their livelihood through ironing. I always worry about this aspect : employment at the bottom most levels of socio-economic strata is a pressing problem in India. Most of us do not care at all ! I have some solutions. We need not replace them. Let pressing without heat generated by coal or electricity (till somebody invents solar irons !) become the fashion. We can still give to them. Let them spray some water, press and give. Don't expect the same quality. (After all they have human hands !! ) Over a period of years they can learn other trades, as it happens with any lifestyle change.
  8. I have given the above one example (looks practical !) mainly to highlight the need to change our lifestyles to reduce energy consumption (in addition, that is, over and above the technological gadgets and processes to have high energy efficiency).
    Another example is that all those who go to expensive multi-star hotels can wear lighter dress and increase the temperature of air-conditioning (This will reduce air conditioning. I understand Japan has already adopted a summer dress code to reduce air conditioning needs.) Also all those who eat in expensive hotels insist that the dishes they make need not have too much food to begin with - let it be served in portions to avoid waste. Also be ready to pay a little more if necessary for solar cooked food. (Afterall expensive hotels charge so much that this extra addition will be very low - you can afford !)
  9. Yes spending less of energy, water, or reducing waste (thus drawing much less from Nature) is the responsibility of all of us.

Many of you will have much better ideas to implement in life.

Y.S. Rajan