I’m as game as the next person to save money in these shaky times, and to safeguard the environment any chance I get. Bring on the recycle bins, the "Al Gore" lightbulbs, the canvas shopping bags, the backyard clothes line.
But, life without a refrigerator? C’mon…..
The strikingly illustrated (left) story in today’s New York Times Home section reports on “a small section of the green movement (that) has come to regard the refrigerator as an unacceptable drain on energy, and is choosing to live without it.”
I did give the idea some thought. Went and stood in front of my refrigerator to evaluate the contents for a few minutes too. Then shook my head in amazement at how some people can take a simple idea (reduce energy use) and make it complicated.
One example cited in the article, a fridge-free woman named Rachel Muston, says she keeps a freezer in the basement of her house and a small cooler upstairs. The cooler is kept cold by two-liter soda bottles full of water, which are rotated to the freezer when they melt. Since all meats and vegetables are kept in the freezer, Ms. Muston says she spends more time cooking – “which requires more time and forethought because items from the freezer must be thawed.”
By now, only about 6 grafs into the story, I’m beginning to fully appreciate what we in the newspaper business call the "dek," that is, the smaller headline under the main headline.
In this one, the NYT wonders: “A few environmentalists are getting rid of theirs for good. Is it the ultimate eco-sacrifice or just eco-folly?”
Another example cited by author Steven Kurutz is a woman who jettisoned her fridge for a cooler that she refilled daily with ice from an ice machine in her office. Say what? And that ice was produced without electricity?? And exactly how much of that ice actually made it home into the cooler without melting? Oh, yeah. Then there were the days that she had to travel on business. ‘Nuff said.
Turns out the “Give me a refrigerator or give me death” stalwarts are equally passionate and, in my opinion at least, far more persuasive.
Deanna Duke, a Seattle resident who writes a popular eco-themed blog called thecrunchychicken.com, sums up the Battle of the Big Chill:
“I think a lot of people in the environmental movement have a romanticized notion of living like a pioneer. But moving icepacks around and rotten food doesn’t have the same romantic appeal as hanging your clothes on a line.”
The article also includes a few stats supporting Duke’s decision to keep her OJ cold and her sour cream safe. For starters, modern, maintained fridges are not the energy hogs they’re being made out to be. A VP of Frigidaire is quoted as saying a sound fridge costs a homeowner about $40 a year to run, or 11 cents a day. Moreover, it’s estimated that downsizing to a mini-fridge results in only about $6 in energy savings over a year.
Please pass the ice-cold Corona.
Comments