Dear Lynn Doan,
Congratulations on your article, Soon, Electric Heat Could Be Cheaper
Than Oil in the Hartford Courant. A friend in the USA passed the
reference to your article on to me as he knew that I had an interest
in energy issues on a world scale.
I particularly want to congratulate you for your breaking down the
industry jargon to one common measuring unit. You chose the Btu, which
is a major step in the right direction but it is, in my opinion, one
small step too few. The final step is to use the joule as the single
energy unit for comparing cost and energy use on a world scale.
Let me explain.
For hundreds of years — ever since we have been using energy — various
companies, industries, nations and even individuals have made up their
own definitions of how to measure energy. So far, I have collected
some 198 of these randomly devised energy measures (see attached
article for a full list).
Now, as we try to address the issues of global warming and peak oil we
need to have a single common unit for measuring energy on a worldwide
scale. That unit is the joule.
I have attached a reference to a fairly short article (1900 words)
that explains the reasoning for this view at http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/AWordAboutGlobalWarming.pdf
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
P.S. It is not only the government of the USA (see EIA DOE data at http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/contents.html
for a small taste of their energy measures) but look at the section
on page 3 to see what the Australian government can do with a few
muddled energy units — the Australian Bureau of Statistics can produce
almost complete obfuscation in only a few short paragraphs!
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for
their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many
different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial
and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA.
Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST,
and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/
for more metrication information, contact Pat at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter/
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