Editors Blog

Peter Powell is Refrigeration Editor. E-mail him at peterpowell@achrnews.com.


Powell's Ponderings: Green Humor

August 31, 2009

I not sure what it means when topics I’ve been writing about end up being made fun of in the Sunday comics.

Writing about the HVACR industry means writing about energy conservation and environmental concerns. The industry has its ways of dealing with both, with more-efficient equipment and new refrigerants.

Other sectors also have their ways.

One way has to do with hybrid automobiles. I’ve written about that because some supermarkets are starting to include preferred parking spaces for such vehicles, including having electrical outlets for those cars needing a charge.

That’s why one comic panel caught my attention recently. It showed a group of prisoners talking with one saying, “I got a lighter sentence for driving a hybrid getaway car.”

Another topic I wrote about is windmills that are used to generate power when the wind is blowing and that power partially offsets what would be generated by coal-burning plants. I recently did a story on a project involving solar panels and geothermal heat pumps in a condo renovation that was across the street from a windmill atop a small store.

The issue is always getting enough wind. That caused one cartoonist to show a politician driving by a wind farm and the owner leaning over the fence and saying, “Thanks, Senator … My windmills needed a jump start.”

Only one thought comes to mind. These were clean comics. But the term for off-color jokes is “blue humor.” I’m wondering if all these environmental comics and jokes constitute “green humor.”
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