Shedding a little light on consumption

As society rushes to go green in creating new energy supplies, such as developing wind and solar farms and adding tidal generators to our oceans to help us keep our lights and air conditioners on, it can be easy to overlook another option to combat climate change and any potential future energy crisis.

In fact, it is down right disturbing to think just how easily and often we forget about the one little word that could mean as much to our future as green energy. The word is conservation. Simply put, cutting energy use is as good as coming up with new sources of it.

The Town of Springhill and others across the province are joining a new street light program to do just that conserve.

The new study will examine energy efficient street lighting practices. John Kelly, Springhills public works director, said as much as 35 per cent, perhaps more, of the towns total energy budget is related to street lighting. It is an issue that creates concerns about how many tax dollars go towards this one component of our operations.

Kelly estimates the energy use of street lights in Springhill alone contributes to several hundred tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year.

If that is what the financial and environmental costs are in one small town how much can be saved across the province, the country and the world by doing something about it?

It seems logical and relatively painless for us to reduce the amount of light we use at night. Doing so would cut costs and result in fewer greenhouse gas emissions.