Finally, an incentive for me to go to the gym. I've always had reservations about going. Mainly, because I could never piece together why I needed to spend so much money at a facility that consumes so much energy just so I could burn a bit off. All that energy expended by hundreds of thousands of people at gyms just ends up being lost everyday. The most logical thing to do would be to harness this energy people are PAYING to get rid of. Capturing the energy we burn is a more sustainable way to work out, but also more economically feasible for the gyms who would save on electricity bills. In turn that should slash prices on gym fees for customers too. Personally, I think this would put back some of the fun into a grueling work out. Knowing that I could contribute back into the system would motive myself and I'm sure many health conscious environmentally conscious folks to get active at the gym. Perhaps one day we can have this technology in our homes getting everyone to participate in a bit of physical activity on a regular basis. A reduction in North American obesity and energy consumption, talk about killing two birds with one stone.
The inventor, Lucien Gambaroto also makes a few important points about individuals and their ability to contribute at all levels. We don't have to be inventors or government officials to make changes in our environment. Each and every one of us has the ability to enforce change and we have to take responsibility for the decisions we make. As consumers we can choose to support services who are finding alternative ways to fuel themselves. We can write letters to government, invent our own source of energy, and even something as simple as educating others is contributing on some level.
Creativity is key when solving any problem and luckily its a resource that is in abundance in the human population. I have a theory that if we have enough brain power and creativity to inflict so much damage to the Earth, there is certainly enough brain power and creativity to fix it.
1 comment:
Excellent idea Judith!
The gym does seem like a logical place to start harnessing energy as the people who use the gym environment are expending such high levels of it. I agree with your comment that it is contradictory to simultaneously consume and expend such huge amounts of energy. Like natural systems, the gym environment should use a cyclical system to expend, harness, and reuse the energy expended. This environment would be a good place to start harnessing human energy, and as our methods of converting energy become more efficient we should expand this thinking to other human environments. -Katie
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