The Pulps And Energy Conservation

Today it isn't hard to find debates over the need for energy conservation and the

technology that will enable societies to do more with less-from fossil fuels like gasoline, coal and heating oil to electricity that runs factory machinery, cooling systems and everything from lighting to computing. Arguments over which systems are best to save energy and what problems they might cause are everywhere-but it might surprise you to know that such debates were common in the pulp fiction of the 1930s and '40s, when it was far less common to find such dilemmas in society.

One of the major sources of disagreement these days is the question of how energy conservation should be approached. Even the US military has gotten involved, with the vast resources required to provide fuel to military vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan putting soldier-driven and -escorted convoys into danger. Fuel has always been an issue for the military during wartime, and the future success of military missions could depend on more fuel-efficient, or even alternatively fueled, vehicles.

Currently debates rage over whether the technology providing solar power is superior to that creating power from wind energy to run power plants and provide electricity, or whether some other means of fueling vehicles-from biofuels to bacteria-will someday replace gasoline and rechargeable electric cars.

Other concerns cropping up are whether the vibrations produced by wind towers are harmful and whether the blades of the windmills themselves endanger birds. The discharge from existing power plants of warmed water into rivers and streams has affected the fish and the native plants dependent on the previously cooler temperatures of those waters. And there are countless other unanticipated results brought about by new technology.

But in the pulps decades ago one could find tales that gave serious thought to unintended consequences. These stories explored what happened not just because of technology itself, of its effects on mankind and nature and also on society as the quest to find some other means of fueling technology and its improvements continued, but also of laws passed to try to help people who have been especially harmed by one thing or another.

An example of the former is Robert A. Heinlein's "The Roads Must Roll." In this tale published in the late 1960s, a society that used "roadtowns" instead of trains and highways to get people from one place to another faced revolution over whether the labor of those who kept the roadtowns moving was essentially more valuable than the labor of others in society.

An example of the latter is L. Ron Hubbard's The Crossroads, in which a farmer is determined to find a way to sell produce he has grown rather than plow it under, as required by a 1933 law that had actually been passed to raise the price of crops as an aid to farmers suffering crippling price drops because of the Great Depression. The Agricultural Adjustment Act set prices on several basic crops and actually paid farmers cash subsidies to plow under their surpluses and reduce the number of livestock they raised so that prices would increase and provide them enough money to get by.

But the legislation did more harm than good to small farmers and sharecroppers, whom it was intended to help, instead benefiting larger industrial farming operations and driving many smaller farmers out of business. In addition, part of the law was later declared unconstitutional, although a later version of the law was passed in 1938 that addressed these concerns-and farm subsidies continue to this day.

More modern examples of unintended consequences from efforts to save energy include the controversy over so-called "smart meters." These devices monitor how much electricity is used in households and businesses and can reduce the supply at times when usage is high, such as during heat waves, to ward off brownouts and blackouts. Not only do some protest such technology as an invasion of privacy, but others say that the meters themselves are unhealthy, emitting radiation levels and frequencies that cause a range of symptoms from headaches and heart palpitations to rashes and even DNA disruption.

As mankind tries to find alternate ways to fuel a society dependent on technology, the unintended consequences of his actions will continue to surprise even those who make it their business to try to anticipate such things.

by: Lee Barwood

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