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Save on energy or save a magpie - which is better?
Yesterday, I was faced with a dilemma. I was working on my computer, and it was getting dark, but I had my curtains drawn back to use the last of the day light and save on energy by putting off turning on my 11W CFL table light. The window in my room faces out onto my balcony. Suddenly, a magpie I had been feeding for 2 years came to check out the latest loot. I had some water and food out. I always feel that the magpie is training me to give it food and go away - it always comes and croaks something when the food is not out, but always escapes when I come into view.
In order to let the magpie eat and drink, I would have to draw the curtains, not to scare it away, but then I would lose the sunlight and would have to turn on the table light. Faced with the dilemma of which is the greener thing to do, I decided to leave the curtains drawn back and not turn on the light, going by Spock's "the good of the many." What would you have done?
Dale T Steele
No question, throw the curtain open and let in that sunlight. You'll be saving the magpie too in a sense. The magpie will learn to fit in in the background and I dare say put on a more interesting show as it goes about its normal behavior and fares better in the long run. My two cents.
Krystian Aparta 200+
Dale T Steele
Bob Horton
Laszlo Kereszturi 500+
Train the magpie to come for food in a park nearby and you both will do some exercise, and save energy.
Krystian Aparta 200+
Mark Meijer 100+
1 - Maybe you can screen off a small section of the balcony and leave the food there. Then maybe if the magpie has that place for eating with you hidden from its view, it can muster the courage to go there without you having to close the curtains.
2 - Buddha told student not to harm any living being. And told student to find a nice tree to sit under and meditate. Student searched all day for a suitable place, but under every tree were ants and all sorts of other life, and student was afraid that sitting down to meditate there would harm them. End of the day, student had been unable to do any meditation at all. Point is, how far do you want to take it?
3 - Who is to say that the magpie is really served best by just serving it food? If it loses the capacity or the will to find its own food and becomes totally dependent on your continued donations, you may actually be hurting it.
4 - You could close the curtains *and* leave the lights out. Maybe listening to music or a podcast or what have you. Maybe finding something to do in another room. Or maybe just enjoying the silence, or the sounds of the magpie nibbling its food.
5 - If you want to make a numbers game out of it, what would be more beneficial: If everyone could save 1 magpie or other being (assuming it actually requires intervention to "be saved"), or if everyone used slightly less energy? I would in general probably tend to go with less energy, except in this case I think the difference in energy is really incredibly tiny. Maybe thinking so much about it already costs more. Having this conversation certainly does ;)
Krystian Aparta 200+
2. Good point! I breathe in bacteria, anyways
3. Of course, I can't decide whether it's wrong or right to let the magpie train me to give it food, I don't actually think one can make judgments like that save by framing them as decisions you can make based on your abstract model of the world. I don't believe in rules outside of human concepts, so anything I imagine the magpie to be thinking is really my own projection. (I usually imagine an internal debate: "Will I take the risk and go snatch the food?" The magpie must rationally assume I am a deadly risk, owing to my making motion and noise - so any notion of saving the magpie is something that I am content in imagining the magpie cannot be happy about).
4 - I would also emphasize "working." Actually, I have a bad habit of looking down at my keyboard when copying and pasting - I think eliminating that would actually be somewhat "green" in this setup.
5 - I went by the same number logic. I don't agree about the cost of this conversation - assuming it's going to be indexed by Google, somebody may once come across it and the tiny energy savings may double. And I think using a tiny bit less is important, if not for just training yourself to drop a habit.
Mark Meijer 100+
2 - I eat plants, and even animals (no magpies though, although I like other pies).
3 - Totally agree. But, unless I misunderstood, the "rule" you set as your human concept, is that the magpie deserves to live. You already framed this whole question on your abstract model of the world. So then the consideration becomes, how best to facilitate the survival of the magpie. Or perhaps, how best to stay out of the way (after all, the road to hell is paved with good intentions). The magpie will of itself have every inclination to live, so no problem there. I imagine you feel obliged to assist it, because the magpie finds itself in relatively hostile "human habitat", for which you feel you are a lot more responsible than the magpie is. So... no particular conclusion here :P other than perhaps that this is the very first thing you may need to think through (insofar as you hadn't already), because it's pivotal to answering your question.
4 - http://www.ted.com/talks/nigel_marsh_how_to_make_work_life_balance_work.html
5 - Good point.