The Electric Toothbrush

PRESIDENT NIXON, in his speech last Wednesday night, called research and development the long-term answer to the energy crisis. Just as U.S. technology successfully developed the atom bomb and Apollo 11, it will develop an alternative source of energy, he maintained. The problem and the long term answer, however, do not lie in any particular energy source but in the mentality of the American people.

Each energy source has its own damaging effects. Nixon called for the construction of more nuclear power plants. However, nuclear plants entail dumping enormous quantities of excess heat into waterways and storage of dangerous nuclear waste products. Many physicists question the effectiveness of the emergency cooling systems built into reactors, and warn that with each new power plant, the chances for disastrous accident's increase.

Environmentalists point to the development of solar power or geothermal power as the purest energy sources. But consumed in the tremendous amounts that are projected, even these sources may have detrimental environmental effects, because of the amount of land area needed or the imbalance created in geological systems.

The problem does not lie in what we use but how we use it. A large sector of the U.S. population uses energy in unnecessary ways--to open their garage doors, cut their meat, brush their teeth. They believe they deserve any new machine which will conserve their own effort. Advertising emphasizes ease in the promotion of each new appliance.

AMERICANS TAKE THE resource of energy for granted in their decision making. Architects and contractors give little priority to energy in their buildings. Living in houses with bad insulation and poor air circulation, Americans depend heavily on heating and air conditioning. Industry manufactures machines which do not take into account energy consumption. Many students, for example, buy stereos which trade 3 per cent better sound quality for 40 per cent more energy. Government money is spent on highways rather than public transportation.

President Nixon asked the public to conserve energy by lowering speed limits to 50 m.p.h. and thermostats to 68 degrees. He was not asking tremendous hardships, particularly if driving at 50 m.p.h. will save 200,000 barrels of oil per day.

His request has been widely disregarded nevertheless. The New York Times concluded, "there were tentative indications that if he [Nixon] is relaying on voluntary compliance, it will be a long, cold winter. Drivers trying to comply with the 50 m.p.h. limit found themselves honked at, tail-gated and passed by many others, including the government vehicles which are under Presidential order to slow down." Nixon described these measures as a temporary "tightening of our belts" when they will be, in reality, long run necessary cutbacks.

Many people view conservation as the impossible attempt to push society backwards, away from the technology it has developed. We cannot ignore technology, but we must change our careless and short-sighted attitudes. Each person should carefully reassess which uses of energy are actually necessary for him and for society.

Americans see alternative energy sources as opportunities to use energy without limit--to be able to drive 70 m.p.h. or more, have their own car, and a completely mechanized house. Because new energy technology inevitably brings new kinds of pollution and damage, the persistance of this wasteful attitude will only give us different problems which we can not now foresee.