The Left has been working hard to ban your gas- or diesel-powered car or truck, they made you swap out your perfectly decent incandescent bulbs for crappy CFLs or expensive LEDs, and next on the chopping block is your hot shower in the morning.
The Washington Post just ran a piece by Allyson Chiu — the paper's "reporter covering climate solutions," naturally — headlined, "Why you should embrace using cold water, almost all the time."
As it turns out, according to Chiu, about 10% of our residential energy use goes to the water heater, so Americans should give "a second thought to setting your washing machine on the hot cycle, cranking your showers to a steamy temperature or scrubbing your dirty dishes under a stream of scalding water."
"Heating water gobbles energy, leading to higher utility bills and more planet-warming emissions."
Please note that the "reporter" warns you about "planet-warming emissions" without citing any sources or providing any balance from an opposing viewpoint.
"An American household," Chiu scolds, "uses an average of 64 gallons of hot water a day — close to the amount needed to fill an average bathtub — by doing laundry, showering, washing the dishes, and running kitchen and bathroom faucets."
64 gallons? Is that all? I feel like this could be one of those "challenge accepted" moments. When I'm done with this column, I'll hop over to Amazon and order my wife more of those scented bath bombs she loves to add to her post-gardening marathon baths. Now there's a woman who knows how to use some hot water.
ASIDE: For what it's worth, I almost always wash my clothes in cold water. Warm or hot water fades colors faster, and modern detergents are so strong that they only rarely need the extra help that warm water provides. But you sure wouldn't want to wash your skin or hair with anything that powerful — you might not have any hair or skin left at the end.
I'd like to see someone conduct a study on how much extra cold water it would take to remove caked-on food from dishes — whether by hand or in the dishwashing machine. Something tells me that the study will never be conducted because the results wouldn't fit the "climate solutions" agenda.
When a paper has a reporter dedicated to "covering climate solutions," the implicit bias that the climate is a problem in need of solutions is laid bare. That's not reporting; that's an agenda. And WaPo under owner Jeff Bezos has given up mere left-leaning bias in favor of agenda-driven propaganda.
The CDC has been on the same case for a while now, warning in 2021 that "warmer water may cause more skin irritation and is more environmentally costly." If you want to see some irritation, try shaving with cold water.
On second thought, unless you have a real masochistic streak, don't. I've found myself in a few situations over the years where I had to shave with cold water. It's a bit like shaving with a broken piece of glass except that it's also cold.
The same CDC page suggests humming the "Happy Birthday" song twice to make sure you wash your hands for the suggested 20 seconds, so it isn't like treating us like children is anything new. But except for some extremely self-loathing blue enclaves, Americans aren't about to give up our hot water.
At least this American isn't.
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