Welcome to Home Energy Savings Guide
Energy Efficient Houses Article
This is a selection made from among articles on Energy Efficient Houses. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for future reading, click here.
Information on the House Energy Committee Report by Wegman, Scott and Said
from:A few years ago, specifically on 1999, paleoclimatologist Michael Mann released a report that concluded that man was experiencing a steady increase in global temperature. Before Mr. Mann’s work, the common belief was that the earth experienced a series of warming and cooling periods.
However, Mr. Mann asserted that people have caused an alarming increase in world temperature. This triggered some media hype and even gave way to a movie. Lately, however, a House energy committee report by Edward Wegman, George Scott and Yasmin Said, debunked this theory.
The House energy committee report by Wegman, Scott and Said proved through statistical means that the report of Mr. Mann, was full of statistical errors and that the methodology he used could have formed the same conclusion with any other type of data.
The three people who made the report were not climatologists. They were actually statisticians from different schools tasked with looking at the report from a mathematical point of view. They actually proved that the methodology and computations made by Mr. Mann was biased to producing the results of a “hockey stick” graph.
This, of course, led people to question the reasons why most of the climate research community remained silent about the discrepancies.
The House energy committee report by Wegman, Scott and Said contained not only the information on why Mr. Mann’s theories were invalid. It also attempted to explain the social network statistics of the climate research company and the reason why only two climatologists came forward to question the theory of Mr. Mann.
In fact, Mr. Mann’s theory was the typical climatologists dream: uncovering a global disaster due to climatic conditions. This, of course, put Mr. Mann in the center of the climate research community.
The attention that the climate community had gotten because of the report may have caused them to shy away from doing a critical study of the papers.
When you take a look at this case, you may be able to pick up a few lessons. Here they are:
1) Ignorance is bliss –Sometimes, people would rather not question an idea that brings them so much. People would rather be told that it is going to be alright than to see for themselves, for fear of discovering something bad.
Some people would rather live in a fantastic dream than in a horrible reality. True, our reality may not seem so good, but why would anyone trade the truth for a dream? That is one of the questions that we all think about, yet fear to answer.
2) A fresh eye never hurts – We all consider ourselves as the best judge of our realities. However, as the House energy committee report by Wegman, Scott and Said has shown, we all need to have someone look over our shoulders once in a while.
“For none is more deceitful than the heart” as a quote goes. We all need a reality check from other people from time to time as we tend to blind ourselves with the potential of success.
3) Make sure you have the facts straight – When we make something public, we must be sure of our motives and facts first. The quest for fame is far from being the right reason to declare something as catastrophic as the climatic end of the world.
In order to save yourself the embarrassment, you might want to have all your facts check out before announcing them. Remember that it never hurts to double check your results.
If you are no expert in one area, you might want to get advice from other people. Usually, researchers do not come to other people for they do not want to share the fame they think they will get. Unfortunately, not getting a second opinion often leads to self-destruction.
As you may see from the House energy committee report by Wegman, Scott and Said, even geniuses can make mistakes.
These are just some of the lessons we have learned from the House energy committee report by Wegman, Scott and Said. In fact, these lessons are always repeating themselves, showing their faces on every mistake that humanity has done. And through it all, we always learn to move on and grow.
Energy Efficient Houses News
the meter's running70%24%With costs rising, groups urge ... - Lexington Herald-Leader
We've got to change our megawatt-wasting ways. Kentucky's energy-efficiency problem, experts say, is that low electrical rates have lulled us into lackadaisical light-switch-flipping. The average man, woman and child in Kentucky uses 70 percent more ...
Read more...Retrofit initiative welcomed - Scoop
DEUN, the Domestic Energy Users’ Network, welcomes the proposal in “Better Performing Homes,” by the NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development, for a strategy to make up to a million houses more energy efficient. DEUN supports the ...
Read more...Measuring and Reducing Americans' Indirect Energy Use - American Enterprise Institute
Most Americans think of energy use in terms of big-ticket items such as gasoline, heating oil, and natural gas. But a great deal of the energy we use is indirect, embedded in the things we buy. Cutting down on indirect energy would produce ...
Read more...Progress Energy pushes Energy Star homes - Raleigh News & Observer
An Energy Star home is tightly insulated and has well-sealed ducts to prevent air leaks. The homes are at least 15 percent more efficient than other homes built to code standards. In a bid to promote energy efficiency, Progress Energy will pay home ...
Read more...Clean Energy Can Fuel Economic Revival, Green Groups Tell Obama - Environment News Service
WASHINGTON, DC , November 28, 2008 (ENS) - President-elect Barack Obama can revive the U.S. economy - and aggressively combat climate change - by investing in clean energy technologies and strengthening environmental protections, the leaders of major ...
Read more...