The names used here are real names of real people. The story is only slightly embellished as seemed useful to the writer. Global warming is real.
The dorm room was a double. Even before Dana plugged in her “Energy Star” lap top and high-tech, low-wattage reading light, the room was furnished with 500 watts of incandescent lights and a small fridge. The lamps heated up the already warm room which, in turn, caused the fridge to run more, adding further to the heat in the room. Almost lucky that the dorm wasn’t air-conditioned – the “waste heat” from the fridge and the lights would have caused the air-conditioner to run longer too. It’s a bit of a mind game to grapple with, but the fact is, all that refrigeration actually heats up the planet.
Tara, the roommate, arrived two days later with a serious PC, a conventional large screen monitor, two incandescent lamps, a radio, a CD player, a DVD player, and an assortment of cooking appliances including a 1500 Watt toaster. A variety of cordless grooming gadgets all came with their own chargers and a tangle of cords. When everything was plugged in the new roommates could feel the heat – their new world was really beginning to cook – no lie.
The effort of lugging ALL THAT STUFF up three floors added body heat to the now hot and crowded room so Dana opened the window. As the room cooled down, the rest of the planet warmed up. Global warming – one dorm room at a time. Even if sea level wasn’t going to rise beyond the second floor, something was going to have to change, and soon. Taking off more clothes didn’t offer much of a solution and anyway, it was a co-ed floor. Wouldn’t turning off the hottest of the offenders mean trying to do stuff in a dimly lit room? Could Tara live without toast?
The logistics and cost of trying to add air-conditioning to the fine print of their dorm contract were too much to consider. Maybe there would be an early winter? Both bright students, Dana and Tara considered their options. There had to be a softer path.
Dana tackled the most glaring offenders first – the now nearly 700 watts of lighting. Between them, the students had eight lights in the room, not counting all the little indicator lights that tell you everything is still on (and producing heat!) even though you thought you turned things off. After a brief lighting summit, the roommates determined that at least half of the lights could go. There would be plenty of light, more space, and less heat – a good compromise.
Tara volunteered to take the excess lighting to basement storage while Dana sent off an email to her Dad – might he be a really excellent parent and send her a couple more of the cool, bright, compact fluorescent light bulbs like the one that was in her reading light? Dana, framing her request carefully, pointed out that she seemed to be getting so overheated and maybe that wasn’t the best situation for her to be in. After all, it was a co-ed dorm. Dana’s father just happened to be online with instant messaging and replied that he had already arranged to have the requested light bulbs delivered the next day. He hoped that she might manage with her reading light until then or maybe spend more time in the university library, which he pointed out was air-conditioned. Dad was a push-over. The lights were easy. The young women were feeling cooler already.
The refrigerator summit contained some long speeches about their respective absolute needs to have various gastronomic creature comforts available at arms length virtually all hours of the day or night. Dana threatened to filibuster just about the time Andrew from down the hall stopped by to ask if they would like to share some watermelon with him. The watermelon wouldn’t fit in his small noisy fridge so he was keeping it in the full-size fridge in the common kitchen. Andrew’s invitation stopped all debate. The watermelon sounded refreshing and the break would allow them to check out Andrew and this common fridge at the same time. Both seemed fine to Tara and Dana. On the way back to their room, Tara admitted that she had never actually had a fridge in her bedroom before anyway. With the full-size fridge just down the hall, across from Andrew’s room, it would be more like at home anyway – well, almost.
The fridge went to basement storage and the new roommates later received a $79.00 refund because they didn’t choose to have a fridge in their room. (note: refund not yet available at USM) Maybe they would read dorm contracts more closely in the future – refrigerators it turned out are hot and expensive – that little fridge used nearly as much electricity as the full-sized “Energy Star” rated model in Dana’s kitchen at home.
Will Tara and Dana stop global warming? Will Andrew help? To be continued…
Dudley Greeley can be contacted at [email protected]