Unsustainable Vanity - Utne Reader

[groovedaddy]

Unsustainable Vanity
The battle for household energy conservation
—By Anna Cynar, Utne.com

August 30, 2007 Issue

Getting people to do their part to curb energy consumption is difficult enough without outdated aesthetics standing in the way. In many areas across the United States, however, community regulations are nixing energy-saving tools like clotheslines and solar panels as neighborhood blight.

http://www.utne.com/webwatch/2007_314/news/12762-1.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. The clothesline protests baffle me.

Fear of being seen as lower middle class?

I dry my clothes on racks in my flat but would use a clothesline in a heartbeat. Saves on energy, no loss of fiber, and more durability rather than a dryer.

[kestrel91316]

2. Exactly. It's CLASSIST.

[Peregrine Took]

6. I love to see a clothesline filled with clothes hanging in the sunshine - its

a beautiful thing.

[NickB79]

7. Mmmm, the smell of clothes dried in the sun

Is a fond memory from my childhood. People don't know what they're missing.

[phantom power]

3. vanity is a renewable resource

[Trillo]

4. I suspect a lot of the community regulations

have been instigated by business interests masquerading as 'concerned neighbors'. Several months back there was a news item, somewhere in the Southern California megalopolis, about such business infiltrations of community meetings with local politicians, and the skewing that might have resulted if the infiltration hadn't been discovered.

I can't think of any other reason to ban solar panels, than to benefit the local power monopoly.

Clotheslines? I don't use one outdoors because I found many years ago that the sun is hard on the fabrics, and I like my clothes to last a long time. But if a neighbor wants to have one outdoors, that's their choice and I'm not going to object.

[XemaSab]

5. Banning solar panels keeps out THOSE PEOPLE...

you know.... HIPPIES.

First you have solar panels, then you have clotheslines, then you have Priuses with Moveon stickers parked in the driveway (because the garage is full of kayaks and camping gear), then you have people tearing out their lawns to plant buckwheats and sages... it's MADNESS... MADNESS I SAY!!!!! :o