First Published 0n 03/25/2015
Years ago, I was President of the Hardy County Public Library Commission. One of the smaller problems I confronted was room temperature in the public meeting room. Seasonal outdoor ambient temperatures affected perceptions of too cold or too hot for lots of folks who attended meetings there.
Marge Zirk, then County Librarian tried all sorts of signage ranging from polite suggestions to perfunctory directives, from asking to telling folks to leave thermostat set the way they’d found it. Everybody seemed to have found it set ten degrees high or ten degrees low and then left it there. Had it not been for the lady who routinely opened and closed the room following evening meetings, Marge would have found that room hot enough to make breathing difficult many mornings.
Tape. Scotch tape, duct tape, adhesive tape. Got so none of them were any deterrent to illicit temperature changes. Got so our heating bill didn’t know what it was going to be next. We did pay several small bills for tape ripped drywall repair around the thermostat area.
Locked cover. Worked fine.
Locks keep basically honest folks honest. Occasionally basically dishonest folks appear though. I think Marge and I had let it become a contest between them and us. By gosh they’d show us. They were gonna win. The locked cover dangled by one bent screw from its mount.
Vandalism. Nobody knew a thing. Those present at the meeting that night had no idea who. If the police ever got a lead, we never heard about it. The good, well meaning citizens who either damaged the thermostat cover, or had knowledge of its destruction won that battle. We won the next. A new thermostat, a repaired, repainted wall, a beautiful dial open to public adjustment. An open invitation to play with their particular personal comfort level without regard for our heating bill. There were no wires attached to it. A dummy. There it is folks. Adjust to your heart’s content.
A second new thermostat. Locked away behind our heavy deadbolt locked utility roo door. Big humming electrical circuitry boxes on the walls around it, time clocks for various purposes and one small meeting room thermostat.
Complaints. “It was awful cold in there last night.” “It was so hot I couldn’t breathe.” “Your thermostat doesn’t seem to work very well.” All these differing perceptions may have been true, but temperatures stayed livably normal and heating/air conditioning costs settled.
“What’s the right temperature for the Earth?” Andy Parker and David Keith, two scientists, wrote that column for The Washington Post, published one day in late February. Anybody interested in climate change should read it.
Without getting buried in a bunch of technical details here or in any country in the world with ability to send rockets into our upper atmosphere, can cool global temperatures with simple aerosols. Small amounts of sulphur oxide disseminated in near space will block sufficient rays from the sun to produce a cooling effect down here on the surface. Cooling effects of erupting volcanoes have been documented for many years and their cooling action is to throw spreading sulphur dioxide.
Think how many countries reach up and twist Earth’s thermostat. If competition ever starts for Earth’s temperature control whose job is it to “lock up the thermostat”.
I think all the recent yammering about climate change is dying down now that we know we can’t control global warming any easier than we can arrive at the proper temperature to keep it.
