There is a cohort of people who hate fossil fuels. While there is a good argument for this, necessity quietens the hypothetical when the world (including New Zealand) risks not being able to access supplies.
Love or loathe, at this moment these supplies are essential in multiple areas that affect our wellbeing. We need transport to and from remote areas in moments of crisis, fertilisers that can grow good healthy food for our nourishment, functioning supply chains, and fuel costs that do not result in having to make difficult budgeting decisions on other essentials.
Humans like to consume. What we waste is not often given the same gravitas. What we put into our petrol tanks is monitored quite well, but our thinking can just be hot air.
We are misguided when we think our personal efficiency is ‘ pretty good.’
The human body operates at roughly 18–26 percent efficiency when converting chemical energy (food) into mechanical work, with about 20–25 percent being the typical range. This means for every 100 calories burned during physical activity, only about 20–25 calories are used for motion, while the rest is released as heat, similar to a 20-year-old car engine.
This news may seem disappointing, but there is better efficiency within that which we can be pleased about. Humans eat about 2.5 kilos each day but only excrete about 0.227 kilos – so a lot of matter is used well, unless we are putting on the pounds as fat storage. Beyond that we drink about five kilograms of water daily, and urinate, sweat, breathe, (or cry) most of this out of our system. Water is really there to offer a solution to any of our eating and exercise problems.
You may be seeing where the exhaustion metaphor prompt comes from. The process of exhaustion leads to exhausting or vice versa – what goes in and unwanted is exhausted out.
Muscles typically recover from exhaustion and intense exercise within 36 to 72 hours. While minor muscle fatigue may subside within 24 hours, intense training, heavy lifting, or unfamiliar exercises often require 2–3 days for complete repair and adaptation.
When explaining to patients soft tissue soreness and the association with rest, recovery, and recreation, my test is to ask what is the time 36 hours from now? Almost nobody can immediately answer. When asked, what is the time 48 hours from now, almost everyone can give the answer – same time as now in two days. For this reason my muscle recovery explanations are in two days.
Conversely (or, the All Blacks would say, perversely), when wanting to increase fitness, a demanding training session would be instigated while the athlete was already under fatigue. This hurt them more than it hurt me, but when the opposition was hurting in a game it hurt them more than it hurt the All Black. Rugby athletes like pain, they just prefer their opponent to feel it! The physical pain of a win is far easier to overcome than the mental pain of a loss. The loss of the second test against The Wallabies in 1979 still stings.
Recovery timelines and factors
Recovery from mental exhaustion varies from a few days for mild fatigue to over a year for severe burnout. Generally, early-stage burnout improves within 2–12 weeks with rest, while moderate burnout takes 3–6 months. Severe or chronic cases may require 6 months to over a year for full recovery.
Some other recovery timeframes to keep in mind:
Mild burnout: 4–8 weeks with consistent lifestyle changes, such as improved sleep and boundary setting.
Moderate burnout: 3–6 months to reduce emotional exhaustion and regain focus.
Severe or chronic burnout: 6 months to 1+ years, often requiring professional support.
Key factors: Recovery speed depends on personal resilience, the ability to remove the stressor, and the level of support.
Looking after yourself in the judiciary
Judges know sitting at the bench can be exhausting, but simply a bit of gentle exercise such as a change of position can transform hardship to workmanship, or body and mind resentment, to management, to contentment.
Not as easy is the after effect of a hearing when writing findings. While writing can be cathartic it can also exhaust the intellectual faculties, particularly when working to a deadline and one’s heart is being invested at equal rate to one’s mind. While reaching a good conclusion has a joy of its own, perhaps even jubilation, a recovery time commensurate with effort is not a display of weakness but of strength, as we take time to resuscitate and revive any debit in our energetic expenditure account.
No point in being mono maniacal thereby exhausting all options.