Now that you’ve worked hard, taken c1are of the basics and own a lovely slice of comfort (well the bank probably owns it but you at least have a slice of the slice) - you can finally decide to change your NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) attitude to the more trendy YESBY (Yebo! Every Solution Starts in my Front Yard) alternative. Your home may well be your haven, a place of refuge for you and your family, where you like to lead a simple life.

Well admittedly it bristles with more security than Pretoria Central Prison; people are continually harassing you by phone; the bell on the gate is constantly being rung by sundry flotsam, both phantom and all too real, and your cell phone bleeps non-stop with that latest of insidious privacy invasions, the junk sms.

Then there is that wonderful form of protection, the alarm system. This is custom-designed to cost you a fortune and torment you on a continual basis. If it’s not the house across the way that is empty all day but has a faulty alarm that blares continually, it’s your kid who accidentally presses the panic button, or a slight breeze that rustles leaves against the electric fence. Just as you manage to stop the deafening racket and calm your hysterical pet, chaos erupts once again in the form of three armed response vehicles descending on your home simultaneously, demanding secret codes that you seem to have momentarily forgotten.

 Hey, don’t worry, you may just discover that you end up healthier, happier and having more fun! You don’t have to be deadly serious about this...no throwing of toilet slops onto the veggy patch, staggering around in a cold, dark house, or reading by candle light... I promise! So check out the options, invest in alternative technologies, but be creative. This is as much about homespun habits - reviving some of those tried and tested simple solutions that served your granny rather well - as it is about moving along with a dash of lateral thinking, and using your natural ingenuity to find simpler, better ways of doing things. Give your imagination a chance, grow your independence and start to liberate yourself from the system. We all need to look seriously at how to reduce, our personal energy consumption. This goes for individuals and industry.

We are spoilt, and have a dangerous sense of entitlement to an inordinate amount of comfort. We think nothing of the water that comes out of our taps, our garbage that “disppears”, the flick of a switch that brings light, heat and cooling. Until one day it suddenly doesn’t! Having said that there’s no better place to start than with our friends, Aishkom! They deserve lots more spanners in their works, never mind their turbines. They need to stop burning old plants and build some new plants in the form of that revolutionary technology, the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR). Nuclear is the very best solution we have right now for mass energy production, until we work out how to derive clean energy from water (hydro-technology), or infinite energy from the sun (fusion).

Do you know?

...who is the single largest generator of carbon pollution per capita in the world? Eskom, SA! And China is second, because these two countries have the largest reserves of coal in the world (According to the Clinton Climate Change Institute).

Say Nuclear and Watch People React!

 "We are not concerned about SA burning coal now that the nuclear energy program has been halted. We are only the anti-nuclear lobby.That's our business." Mike Kantey, Earthlife Africa

It’s a great way to get the conversation going at dull cocktail parties, and to discover how old people really are. Botox aside, anyone who maintains nuclear energy generation is dangerous because of Three Mile Island or Chernobyl should be politely directed to contemporary reality, quantum concepts and the healthy impulse of occasionally revising pre-conceived ideas and unhelpful bigotry in the light of new information and scientific progress. SA is at the forefront of nuclear energy, which can buy the world vital carbon credits until science catches up with our voracious human needs and masters even better technologies. Who needs oil when we are poised to become the chic sheiks of nuclear power? We’ve got the technology the world needs now. The PBMR has inherent safe features, which means that it will shut down automatically if a fault occurs during reactor operations. There is in fact, no set of circumstances that could put the public’s lives or even health at risk. Like lego, they consist of modular units that are small, versatile and sexy. Well we’re talking the nuclear version of sexy, you understand! The bulk of our electricity comes from burning the cheap, low grade but plentiful supply of coal unfortunately available in SA. This is not a great option, given the fact that we have the merest sliver of a layer of atmosphere between the Earth and oblivion. Have you considered your biggest impacts on the planet? * The amount of energy you use in your home * The water you use * The garbage you generate every day * How many children (and pets) you have * Flying - travelling by air generates tons of carbon * Driving - how energy efficient is your car?

This is sunny SA, remember? Solar energy generation systems are currently a viable but relatively expensive option for the individual in terms of using less electricity, gas or oil to provide light, cooling and heat for your home. Solar water heating panels currently cost around R5,000 each, including installation, and one panel is enough to heat your geyser. If you would like to disconnect altogether from the grid, you can install photovoltaic panels and a battery for storage. This will take care of almost all your domestic energy needs for about 15 years, and costs about R40,000 for a family of four. As for cooking, the SunStove is a simple and cheap way to cook food and boil water without wood.

Locally manufactured, it is sold all over Africa, but can be produced anywhere at minimal capital outlay. SA has less effective economies of scale and fewer choices than Europe or the US in terms of appliances, vehicles and technologies. We have limited access to innovative products and a lack of regulatory controls over manufacturers, producers and retailers of all types. Chances are that if you were at the forefront of the alternative energy movement you already have solar panels that assist with heating water in your geyser, but you probably have no idea if they are actually functioning or are even making a difference to your electricity consumption.

Tips For Saving Electricity

* Fit a solar water heater and geyser. It pays for itself in a relatively short time.

* Make sure your geyser is well insulated, so that it retains heat for as long as possible and set it to 60 degrees.

* Switching the geyser off when not in use, and an hour or so before you need hot water, provides savings to both the electricity grid and your pocket, but not if you are a big family and need to switch it on and off frequently.

* Replace regular light globes with energy saving lamps – they use about 20% of the energy and last 6 to 8 times longer.

* CFLs are available in two broad colour options - warm white and cool white. Cool light is suitable for visual tasks because it produces higher contrast. Warm light is better for living spaces because it is more flattering to skin tones and clothing.

* New LED lights are better than compact fluorescent lamps, and are becoming more readily available.

* Energy efficient bulbs are available in supermarkets and hardware shops.

* Use energy efficient lamps for exterior lighting, with timers or light sensors to switch them on and off as required.

* Skylights make maximum use of daylight.

* Vacuum the coils in the back of your refrigerator twice a year to maximize efficiency.

* Make sure the fridge is not positioned next to the stove, dishwasher or direct sunlight and that the seals around the doors are not cracked or torn

* Freezers work best if they are full – fill it with building bricks, or huge tubs of icecream. However, now that you’re eating by candlelight, make sure you don’t serve the brick for dessert!

* Unplug computers and TV’s at night. Plug them all into a power strip which can be switched on and off conveniently.

* Sixty per cent of electricity consumed by such appliances occurs while they’re idle, powering light displays.

* Cell phone chargers consume energy as long as they are plugged in.

Tips For Saving Water

 * Fit a tank to catch rain water from your roof.

* Use this rain water for the garden and for washing your hair.

* Retrofit your home so that all water is recycled into the garden,

* Compost organic household waste and use it to cover the soil - it helps keep soil moist and feeds it at the same time,

* Only water your garden in the evenings or early morning,

* Water by hand rather than using a sprinkler or an irrigation system.

* Drip feed only the roots of the plants rather than spraying water into the air.

* Use low flow shower heads to save water and electricity (plus you get extra exercise running around in the shower trying to get wet).

* Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth.

* Get leaky taps fixed immediately.

* Turn the shower off while you shave or comb conditioner through your hair.

* Get a dishwasher (other than yourself, of course). They use less water and electricity than doing the dishes by hand if you are a family of three or more. Also it frees you up to do more constructive things with your time.

* Use only biodegradable products throughout the house.

* Relax, what’s with the obsessive compulsive cleaning disorder? Germs are good for you. They make you strong.

* Take short showers rather than baths, and wash your undies and other small garments in the shower at the same time. Pretend you’re at a Bacchanalian grape stomping festival, sing lustily (okay maybe leave that bit out if you value the sanity of your neighbours) and do your undies while you wash your hair.

* Don’t use the tumble dryer - hang washing out in what passes for fresh air.

* Take up yoga, meditation or some other form of relaxation as an alternative to long hot showers.

* Try using no soap at all. It destroys the acid mantle of your skin. If you don’t smoke or drink too much alcohol, get enough exercise and drink plenty of filtered water, you won’t smell. Really! Okay if you don’t believe me then at least use only bio-degradable soaps and shampoos.

* Save water and bath with a friend or leave the water in for the kids (or whoever else is lower on the food chain than you).

Global Economic Perspective

We heat and pollute the planet with coal fires, furnaces, internal combustion engines and wood fires. Using the fire of the sun instead of building fires on the earth makes enormous sense. Unlike other natural reserves the warmth of the sun is a resource that’s not going to expire shortly - probably because we haven’t worked out a way to get to it! On the contrary, if we carry on with ‘business as usual’, the protective ozone layer will diminish to the extent that the sun’s heat on earth will increase significantly, threatening our very existence.

While SA continues to be dependent on burning coal as a major source of primary energy, the need for diversification is recognised as imperative to sustainable development. Supporting conventional coal and nuclear sources of energy as well as alternatives is one of the stated objectives of the South African Energy Policy of 1998. The PBMR has great potential for generating enormous amounts of energy safely, economically and cleanly, though it is still in the design stage. This will solve the problem of the need to replace power stations built in the 80’s as they reach the end of their lifetime. These constitute a significant portion of our current electrical supplies; affecting economic growth which is strongly linked to energy demand.

While South Africa is amongst the nations with excellent solar heating potential, globally it lags considerably behind nations like Israel and China in its adoption of solar water heaters due to their cost. The promotion and subsidisation of solar energy should be a priority for the Department of Minerals and Energy. Some reports estimate the job-creation potential of the local solar water heater industry at around 120 000 jobs. If all new homes were fitted with solar panels SA would increase its annual renewable energy capacity by 7% of the total national renewable energy target for 2013.

It’s Up To You And Me To Make A Difference!