Energy

It's kind of strange, but until this point, I didn't really know much about energy or conservation or anything.  Of course I knew the basic stuff like "it's good to recycle" and "turn off the lights when you go out" but that was about the extent of my interaction with energy conservation and usage.  Of course, when gas prices go up, I silently complain to myself, but just feel resigned to the fact that that's the way things are.  But as it turns out, that's not exactly true.

Due to Hawaii's geography, it turns out we have some challenges and benefits that most other places in the world don't share.  For example, we're severely lacking on space so it's impractical to create huge power grids, but we have almost all types of natural energy things like wind, waves, lava, etc.  Also, we spend a ton on gas and use way more than a lot of other places on the mainland USA.  So it makes sense that Hawaii would take the initiative in trying to find clean, reusable energies.

But another interesting thing is that in the pursuit of reusable energy, there can be some harm to the environment as well! So you can't just say "hey guys, let's put up windmills wherever possible and solar panels everywhere else.  Windmills mess people up with the noise and sight and have a bad habit of killing birds.  Solar panels have very little maintenance but aren't nearly as effective as other means, which means that we'd have to use a ton to get the same effect, covering a lot of land we may want to use for other things.  With just those two examples, I began to see that the problem really isn't too simple. But the thing that most excited me was the fact that data and knowledge was such a big deal to people.

Personally, i know that computers drain their fair share of electricity and that leaving things on, or building a power hungry system can really have an effect on how much you pay every year.  And I know there are tools out there to monitor how much you're using, but I never got around to buying one so I just went on living my happy, ignorant life.  But it turns out people are interested in knowing these things, for one, by looking at how much you're using, you have a concrete reference with which to improve.  Also, when power companies look at this sort of data, they can spread the load and make sure that there is enough electricity at peak times and maybe a little less when there is less need for it instead of just supplying the same amount all the time.

To that end, there are a lot of people trying out pilot programs and other things to get the community more involved in conserving electricity and moving away from fossil fuels.  I think it would be really cool if Hawaii could be totally independent, at least in energy if not in food or other commodities.  But there's certainly a lot to be done to get even a little closer to that point, and I think one of the main things is public awareness.  Most people don't know, and don't care.  If they don't see how something effects them directly, they aren't really interested in it, which is why things that get them involved somehow will probably work better (like giving me free monitors :P)