The Clothesline Paradox

If you take down your clothesline and buy an electric clothes dryer, the electric consumption of the nation rises slightly. If you go in the other direction and remove the electric clothes dryer and install a clothesline, the consumption of electricity drops slightly, but there is little credit given anywhere on the charts and graphs to solar energy which is now drying the clothes.

If you drive a motorcycle, the gasoline you consume appears in the nation’s energy budget. If you get a horse to ride and graze the horse on range nearby, the horse’s energy which you use does not appear in anyone’s energy accounting. If you install interior greenhouse lights, the electricity you use is faithfully recorded. If you grow the plants outside, no attempt is made at an accounting.

If you depend on more customary old-fashioned uses of solar energy like growing food, drying clothes, sun bathing, or warming a house with south facing windows, the sun credit is virtually ignored.

(The obvious could be pointed out: that coal and natural gas are all solar products stored ages ago by photosynthesis and our hydro-electric power is solar energy no older than our weather patterns!)

We do tend to underestimate and devalue the things that we can’t precisely measure or price or even guess at with certainty.

It’s worth remembering that even if we can’t derive a formula for exactly how and at what cost the sun and wind did their magic, after a couple of hours the clothes are indeed dry!

So…think on those things that count for you, even if they can’t be counted!