Day 28- The Second Law

There are a few ways of expressing the second law of thermodynamics. Now don't ask me to remember whether this is Claussius' version or the Kelvin-Planck statement, but one way basically says "heat doesn't go from cold places to hot places".

If heat doesn't go from cold places to hot places on its own, then, to make a cold place colder, you have to expend some energy, right?

I'll get to the point soon, I promise. Let's say our cold place is the inside of a train, and our hot place is Thailand. Is it really a good use of electricity to have the air conditioning working so hard, that the people inside the train need to wear jumpers and cover themselves in blankets to be comfortable?

Of course not, but I'm equally guilty of putting the heating on in Scotland when jumpers and blankets could be enough to keep me comfortable. But isn't it funny how fussy us humans are when it comes to temperature. Perhaps those nomads back in Mongolia- who endure temperatures from minus forty to plus forty, by wearing wool and burning a little goat dung- should inspire us to be a little less fussy for the sake of the environment.

While we're on the subject of environment, I'd like to apologise for the number of plastic bottles I've used and thrown away on this trip. Is there not a better system we could come up with for drinking water? Surely if shops had refil stations, instead of selling new bottles, we'd save on a huge amount of plastic.

Oh, and all those towels that have been washed on my behalf, in rooms with fans where I could air dry myself in a minute, and sheets that I have used for a single night, when I could have taken one sheet sleeping bag with me... The only thing in my favour really, is that I'm not flying, but even that is about to change soon! 

Such were my thoughts as I drank bottled water, sitting at the door in third class because the air conditioned carriage was too cold, watching the sun set over southern Thailand.