Impressions From a Friend in Florida

One of our acquaintances moved to Florida a couple of months ago, and some of his impressions from his Danish blog on “Coming to America” inspired a few thoughts. Could perhaps be rather thought-provoking for you Americans to read to see some of the impressions we Danes get when we come over to the US.

His name is Martin, he is an internet millionaire in the sense that he sold a major search engine some years ago. He has dedicated his life to entrepreneurship and has participated on TV trying to develop the best ideas in the country. A very dedicated man. He has also spent some time developing a specific piece of software, and if I named his product, most of you wouldn’t know what I’m talking about.

Never mind. His products and background is not the purpose, as such, for this article. Just giving you a bit of background information on the man I got my info from.

He did mention how much electricity is being spent on refrigerators, appliances, gadgets etc, and also mentioned that if ever REAL CHANGE was to happen it would have to be something EASY TO HANDLE because many are rather LAZY. Many Americans are in their cars when their kids come out of kindergarten. Here, in Denmark, we go out of our vehicles to pick up our kids, and we get out of our cars to park in the garage. Those little elements of physical exercise are actually beneficial for everyone. If you don’t do this, perhaps you should try it. See your kids’ faces when they see YOU made an effort to pick THEM up. And getting out of your car is no major effort. Why spend electricity for a motor doing the work for you?

[For those who can't because of disabilities, bear in mind that this is NOT referring to you. I am directing my advice to people who CAN and SHOULD take out time to make life a bit more active and less power consuming.... ]

There is a certain validity to power being something we take for granted. Try shutting down your electricity for just ONE HOUR. Your fridge can manage, and so can your freezer, but just TRY it. Find out just how much you take electricity for granted. Then, you can begin taking a decent look at the way you use that electricity…. What will you find?

You COULD get solar panels and save tons of dollars on heating water in your home

You COULD get a wind mill if you live on a ranch so you won’t burden public electricity services, and you might even bring a surplus back to society.

You COULD get a system that takes heat from the ground and turns it into heat in your home. It costs a bit to start you off, but pays for itself in no time.

You COULD walk the dog down to the supermarket instead of taking your car, and only letting the dog out in your yard.

Fill in the blanks. There is much we can all do to become better servants on an earth that must be dealt properly with so future generations can live decently on this planet. Is that too much to ask? Does it require too much effort?

Will we prefer to suffocate in our own inactivity? I hope not…