Carbon theater

Borrowing Bruce Schneier’s wonderful term security theater, Rohit Khare has written about privacy theater. Not to be outdone, here’s a letter to my local newspaper about carbon theater.

To: Editors
Re: Carbon challenge in home stretch

We love our sports rivalries, and the classic contest between Keene and Portsmouth has riveted me to my sofa. Let’s recap. Back in April, seacoastonline.com (http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20090423-NEWS-904230413) reported:

Municipal employees in Portsmouth and Keene, the state’s two predominant ‘green’ cities, slugged it out over the course of three weeks and, in the end, Keene delivered the knockout punch.

This week, the Sentinel and the Portsmouth Herald advanced the story of this “carbon-busting throwdown” in a joint communique (http://keenesentinel.com/articles/2009/12/29/news/local/free/id_384393.txt):

Garry Dow of Clean Air-Cool Planet, which manages the carbon challenge, said the scales are tipped in Portsmouth’s favor in the second phase, which involves the number of residents in each city to sign up for the challenge.

The challenge? Check it out at http://necarbonchallenge.org/calculator.jsp. There you will find an online form that reminds you to tighten up your house, use compact fluorescent lights, air-dry your dishes, and recycle.

Back in April, more of Keene’s city employees took the survey than Portsmouth’s. But now, in phase two of the carbon-busting throwdown, Portsmouthians are taking the survey at a higher rate than Keeners.

Across New England, according to the Carbon Challenge website, this slugfest has reduced C02 emissions by over 17 million pounds. That’s nothing to sneeze at. It’s two thirds of New York City’s daily waste stream, a third of the mass of the Titanic, a fifth of the C02 produced by the recent Copenhagen conference.

Except, of course, none of the combatants has actually reduced their C02 emissions. They’ve only take an online survey, and pledged to do all sorts of things that might or might not get done.

I’d like to propose a different challenge. Let’s focus on one thing and really get it done. For example, what if every leaky window in Keene were equipped with an interior storm? John Leeke, who runs Historic HomeWorks in Portland, invented this cheap, appropriate, and effective technology. On his website (http://www.historichomeworks.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=193) he shows how to build interior storms.

I’ve done this, and it’s a vast improvement over the stick-on window kits I’ve used in previous years. Interior storms are just cheap wooden frames with gaskets around the outside and shrink-wrap plastic facing. They press-fit into your window frames from the inside. You get all the benefits of the stick-on kits: zero air infiltration, a second layer of dead air. And there are none of the drawbacks: awkward yearly installation, destructive yearly removal.

“Keene’s down in the standings,” the Sentinel/Herald article says, “but there’s still plenty of time for residents to take the online survey and boost the city’s chance to take home the green prize.”

Well, OK, but I’d like to see Keene define — and then win — a different prize. What if we become the first city to outfit every leaky window in town with an interior storm? And what if we create jobs while doing so? That would be something worth shouting about.