Common sense seems like such a simple concept; a basic understanding underlying
obvious principles. For example, common sense would dictate wearing a
coat when it rains, locking the doors before leaving home and not walking
onto a road without checking for oncoming traffic first.
Wikipedia says common sense consists of what people commonly agree on. Thus,
common sense equates to the knowledge and experience that most people have. However, whatever definition one uses, identifying particular items of knowledge as 'common sense' can become problematic.
For example, as of April 1 in Nova Scotia common sense no longer prevails on: 1) cell phone use in cars; and, 2) smoking in cars with children in them.
To me, it's brainless to think that any driver could safely maneuver a vehicle and talk on a phone at the same time, but every day lately I see people trying to do those two things at once on the road. It's very scary.
So government had to legislate common sense. Committed multi-taskers who disobey the cell phone ban next month will be handed a fine of $164.50. Apparently, we’re just the second province in Canada to make common sense the law.
And this is after a study by a British insurance company determined that cell phones are worse in terms of impairing reaction time than drinking drivers by a whopping factor of 30 per cent.
Of course, the province wasn't long in jumping on Wolfville's bandwagon with a ban against smoking in cars with children present that will trump the town by two months. Mayor Bob Stead said that it took less than a month for the Smoke Free Vehicles Bylaw to go to the provincial Legislature.
The Minister of Health in New Brunswick is also calling on his colleagues to adopt the same legislation. But why all this legislation?
Surely smoking around children is a no-brainer. After all, the Ontario Medical Association found that second-hand smoke is 23 times more toxic in a car than in a house.
The next question is when we’re going to ape Quebec - the first province to order motorists to install winter tires. As of next fall it will be law in la belle province. The 10 per cent of drivers who don't put proper tires on will risk a fine for their lack of common sense.
I believe common sense is telling us now that human technological civilization has impacted natural climatic cycles enough to create life-threatening challenges and common sense dictates we must create more prohibitions. I’m all for a ban on fast food drive-throughs. There has to be some impact on those people who don’t think they influence the environment
A group of students at the University of Alberta monitored a Tim Horton’s drive-through and found the average idle was five minutes and the longest was more than 12. That sure goes against all common sense. Kings County councillor Wayne Atwater tried for moratorium once and I hope he will bring up the notion again.
Voice of reason
Ivan Smith of Canning weighed in on the energy topic I launched last month and his is a voice of reason. Having done the math, Ivan contends that over a year an ordinary computer in sleep mode will consume as much energy as an SUV driven 21km. That's one trip from Wolfville to Kentville and back.
For anyone who doesn't believe him, Ivan says he'll wager $100 to be paid to a charity of your choice that when closely scrutinized, his numbers will stand up. He adds that his computer in sleep mode will operate for 1,600 hours on one dollar's worth of electricity at today's residential electric rate in Nova Scotia.
Ivan told me he was in the energy business for a long time. "I cashed my first paycheck in the energy business in June 1954, working for the Canadian General Electric Company in Peterborough, Ont. In May 1955, I was hired
by the old Nova Scotia Light and Power Company, then Nova Scotia's largest electric utility.
“I have a vivid memory of a summer day in 1957, when I was fiddling around with some numbers in the steam-powered electric generating plant on Water Street in Halifax (the building later became Electropolis,
the movie studio) and discovered to my surprise that the energy efficiency of a well-designed steam-powered electric generating plant was then about 32 per cent."
Even now, 50 years later, with enormous expenditures on research trying to improve this efficiency, he added, the very best we can do is about 38 per cent, and that can be achieved only short-term under the most favourable
conditions.
"Funny thing, you will not find that morsel of information in any electric utility website. Even funnier, no government Environment Department website mentions it either (at least, I've never found any such
mention and I've looked repeatedly)."
To check Ivan's computations, go to:
ns1758.ca
