Sunday, June 26, 2005

Luxury on ice, or how to raise Rose's blood pressure

There is an interesting article in the style section of today's New York Times. Allen Salkin tells of an experiment in which a reporter tested the temperatures of various commercial centers in Manhattan. It was found that, "almost without fail, the more ritzy the establishment is trying to be, the colder the air-conditioning is kept. In other words, the higher the prices, the lower the temperatures." The author cites the Hermes store as an example, where it was 68.6F, and a stainless steel thermos had a price tag $1,200.

Consider the (rich) irony of that little tidbit of information. I use a thermos because I'm cheap and fussy, and I don't care to spend $3 for a cup of mediocre coffee on the road when I can travel with my own splendidly brewed, economical coffee from home. A thermos that is "worth" more than my 96 Saturn doesn't compute in my frugal mindset.

I suppose I could just roll my eyes and snicker at the idiocy of this air conditioned decadence. A fool and his money and all that jazz, eh? But we are all paying the price for such energy wastage. As the article points out, "The Energy Department says that each degree setting on a thermostat below 78 degrees increases energy consumption by 8 percent." Unless Hermes has signed on with an eco-friendly supplier of electricity such as Green Mountain Energy (like we have), their excessive demands for energy will result in increased air pollution.

My big brother tells me that Toronto's summer air quality has deteriorated drastically in the past few years, to the point that his family could not go outside yesterday. The iconic CN Tower was barely visible through the smog. Half of Ontario's smog comes from the United States.

Gandhi said something to the effect that, when we take more than we need, we steal from those who do not have enough. How his heart would break to realize that in 2005, such mindless decadence is literally choking us.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Rose, Glad my article made your blood boil -- Allen Salkin
http://www.allensalkin.com