No one in Europe seems to own clothes dryers. Dryers are energy hogs, and most folks hang their laundry to dry. Drying racks were available in our Paris apartment, although with the constant rain it took two full days to dry everything out. The hallways are frequently motion sensored to light up only when someone is in need of light. Everyone uses energy efficient light bulbs as well.
In the Zurich hotel and airport, even the escalators are on power conserve and only move when you step onto them.
How frustrated they must be when they see how much energy Americans use? They know climate change is real and keep wondering when the US will catch on. Our oil and gas companies have done a masterful job of bullshitting the American public with the same PR machine that used to serve the tobacco industry. If you still "question the science" of climate change, just like you may have "questioned the dangers of cigarettes", I invite you to watch the documentary "Chasing Ice". No questions left after that one.
So after traveling these past several years, we had some decisions to make. Our three cars are all ten years or older and we were debating the next steps. One week only one was functional, the other two were at the garage for repairs. One early option was to get a brand new Toyota Yaris. We had narrowed the field to good gas mileage vehicles without being electric until they sort out the carbon footprint on those dang batteries. They're on the cusp but not quite there. Test driving was fun for awhile, and we tested the Smart car, the Fiat 500, the Nissan Rogue and the Toyota Yaris before deciding on the Yaris.
Then we talked again and made a conscious decision not to buy another fossil fuel vehicle. Our next car will now be electric, and we are willing to wait to spend our money on a good electric car in a few years. Other decisions and mindsets have changed for me as well. I will walk sometimes to the grocery store if I only need one bag of items. We live in a great walking neighborhood and I could get to my dentist and doctor if I owned a bike. So we will invest in bikes this spring when the weather heats up.
I will wear my clothes more before laundering them. We now pack one bag for Europe and buy another one over there to bring back souveneirs, but we can make do with three pairs of pants for 16 days.
I know from my work with civil engineers that one of the greatest energy costs we have is moving water. So every ounce we can conserve we save dramatic amounts of energy. We switched over to the newer bulbs in our lamps and fixtures. We turn our thermostat down nightly (it's not programmable in our apartment). Washing only full loads of both clothes and dishes.
We have an 11 year old, but are already thinking about our next "space". I've found a great new trend called "tiny houses" and we are totally enrolled in being in a much smaller space. I think the whole idea of having the big house that family can all come to for holidays is a waste of space the other 360 days of the year. How about we rent a great big house for the holiday week?
Every time we go to Ikea my husband gets very enamored of having a smaller space. "We can live in 540 square feet! We can have a murphy bed in the living room for when Nicho comes (stepson lives with us alternating weeks)." I think that's unrealistic for a soon to be teenage boy who will want his own space, but I'm open to a smaller 2 bedroom.
When we were in London, our hotel room had one foot on one side of a double bed smashed against a wall and my husband literally cleaned the shower stall when he turned around in it. In Rome, the shower opening had both of us contorting to get into it. In Paris, our one bedroom apartment had the smallest kitchen I'd ever seen, until we visited New York. That apartment also had a tiny kitchen. I made do in both. No problem.
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