Unlike most people who are trying to cut their energy use, I'm actually in the position of trying to manage its growth. I don't feel too bad about my use going up, either.

That sounds bad, I know, but a little perspective is important here. According to Facebook's carbonminder app, I currently only generate about 60% of the average American's carbon emissions. I don't entirely trust carbonminder, because it's a Facebook app, and you can fling thongs at people using Facebook apps, and it takes some pretty general numbers and comes up with a 5 figure calculation of my carbon emissions. Still, the result is probably in the ballpark so I'll take it.

For two decades I did a lot of walking, and I took public transportation everywhere. I didn't even own a car. I didn't fly anywhere, and I live in a part of the country where it rarely gets too hot or too cold, so I rarely used the heater or air conditioner. At the time, I doubt if my energy use was more than a quarter of the average American's. It wasn't a bad life, either.

Within a few years of meeting my wife, I finally got my driver's license. For two years, my wife and I drove a 1990 K-1500 pickup that got less than ten miles a gallon. Probably the best thing we can say about it now is that it now belongs to someone else. We still get Christmas cards from Hugo Chavez though, and that's nice.

Less than two years later, we had the chance to buy a new car. We ended up getting a hybrid. Every time I filled up the truck I saw exploding Humvees and drowning polar bears and with that truck, that happened fairly often. The point of a hybrid was to use less gas and endorse alternate fuel technologies. We drive more with the new car, but not too much so, and we tripled our miles-per-gallon. And the new car doesn't leak oil like a British tank.

Some changes were inevitable. However, I've been trying to mitigate them where I can. I'm pooling my energy use with my wife and others. We share one car. When we turn on the heat, two of us benefit, instead of just myself. We have only one refrigerator. We use more light and electricity in general, but I installed fluorescent bulbs throughout the apartment. Fluorescent bulbs are not that great, and we still keep incandescents in a few key places. We also dialed back the water heater a bit.

I find myself in a position similar to that of India or China--after years of low energy usage I'm rapidly building up to the average American's, and now I'm told that even that is too much. Sometimes it sucks to be the late bloomer. I don't feel like complaining much, though, because life at sixty percent is so good I haven't the slightest idea what I would do with the other forty percent.