Cafe Etiquette

Yesterday's WSJ Article ("No More Perks: Coffee Shops Pull the Plug on Laptop Users" ) discusses shop owners' frustration with loitering laptop users who take advantage of free electricity and WiFi while buying nothing and displacing paying customers.

It points up how oblivious we all are to our use of energy both direct and indirect. When we use the internet we either have a desktop plugged in, a laptop we have had to charge up or some other portable device that also had to be charged. But we speak with forked tongue: We speak conservation and renewables out of one side of our mouths and banter about this great, energy consuming technology out of the other side.

Remember, the internet isn't in the airwaves because angels deliver it on splendid wings. There are servers, mountains of servers, all over the world that provide us with the internet. And they require power. Lots of it. Moreover, those servers have to be cool. And I don't mean wearing a pair of Ray-Bans, a spiffy hat with a cigarette dangling. Those servers need air conditioning all of the time.

Here's the point: the small things we do mindlessly, consume energy constantly. And no matter how conservation minded we would like to be, are we really willing to give up the pleasure and utility of modern technology. Laptop users consume a shopowner's electricity and WiFi because it's "free" but it should be as carefully conserved as if it were your own. The proprietor meets his overhead by selling food and drink; the freebies are an inducement to buy.

So, I'll quote the wisdom of my literary agent, Amanda Mecke: "There is no free lunch --- or electricity anywhere."