Earlier entries in this series: I, II, III, and IV.
From Time via Fox News:
Climate modelers have long known that households are far bigger contributors to global warming than most laypeople realize. For all the blame tailpipe emissions take for escalating temperatures, homes and office buildings are actually the single largest contributor to greenhouse gasses. One key reason is the 100-plus million refrigerators in America’s 111 million households. According to the Department of Energy, the standard fridge sucks up about 8% of the electricity used by all homes—a pretty big share given the dozens of big and small appliances and electronics that are also drawing juice.
…the Department of Energy has announced that it intends to add 84 kilowatt hours to the efficiency rating of every refrigerator equipped with an icemaker. Consumers will feel that fact in the wallet—and if manufacturers don’t scramble to improve their numbers, they soon will too.
By the way, saying “Climate modelers have long known that households are far bigger contributors to global warming than most laypeople realize” is like saying “Scientologists have long known that the human body contains is infested with the disembodied souls of confused, brainwashed space-aliens.” Deeply ingrained religious superstition does not knowledge make.
With that aside: Had you ever realized we have a freedom to have an inexpensive, efficient ice maker in our refrigerators, and that such a freedom — if we aren’t vigilant — can be taken from us? There are so many freedoms we don’t even realize we have, which is why the Founders in their wisdom constructed the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
