Candace

Talmadge

Read Candace's bio and previous columns

December 17, 2007

Low-Tech Advances Still Deserve Our Investment

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow, goes the holiday song’s refrain.

When that winter blast hits, however, it often reminds us that we depend on relatively low technology for the majority of our creature comforts – even in the digital age.

Hundreds of thousands of people were without electric power during recent ice storms in the Midwest. As the winter season progresses, many more will lose power for what seems like an eternity before it returns.

And without electricity, most of us lose the ability to heat our homes in the frigid cold (even gas heating needs an electric fan), light up the darkness, or watch a DVD.

In fact, throughout human history, three inventions have been most responsible for making life comfortable. They are indoor plumbing, electric power and indoor heating/air conditioning. Go without any of these three, and life becomes much more difficult and, in many cases, duller, too.

Inside plumbing and the accompanying municipal sewer and water treatment was a major step in refining life on this planet. Some may regard the outhouse, chamber pot or well pump as quaint. But the big steps forward in sanitation and comfort provided by indoor plumbing put this decidedly non high-tech invention atop of the list of things that make life better.

Electricity is next, making night living possible, and pretty much putting an end to the custom of going to bed at sundown and rising at sunup. It’s hard on the eyes to do much by candlelight or even gas lamp. Electric lighting facilitates education and so many other activities and pleasures of our lives today.

With the advent of electricity came indoor heating and air conditioning for all types of climates. Evaporative (swamp) coolers existed before refrigeration AC, but they work best only in low humidity locales. A swamp cooler that works OK in Phoenix or Denver is not much use in keeping room temperatures moderate in Atlanta or Bangor.

These advances have their costs – monthly bills and pollution. And on hearing again and again news of yet hundreds of thousands of storm-related power outages, it’s impossible not to wonder why the treasure poured into the sands of Iraq wasn’t instead invested in this nation’s power and water/sewage infrastructure.

Electricity and all else that depend on it does not have to fail every time it snows or ices over. Power transmission grids, not to mention phone and cable lines and related equipment can be buried underground and already are in certain, typically upscale enclaves. As usual, the cost of burying power lines is the main justification for why said lines and equipment remain above ground throughout most of the country.

And then the storm hits, the power goes out, and people freeze to death. Most storm fatalities are traffic related, but some can be traced to the lack of power for heating. With all the billions we have spent to prevent other causes of death, such as cancer, surely we could spend a few billion more to keep our fellow Americans from the misery and even danger that befalls them when they lose electric power during the ravages of the seasons.

© 2007 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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