Earth Hour

[Bali Muncher Jim]

Dont know if you guys have heard about this?

http://earthhour.wwf.org.uk/

They want one billion people around the world to switch off their lights at 8.30pm on 28 March 2009, and they need your help.

"Taking part in WWF’s Earth Hour is a great way to show that you want action to tackle climate change. It is also an occasion to have some fun – and to raise funds to support our vital work to promote solutions to tackle climate change".

OOO I feel all hippy :)

[Pseudo]

Nice one,Jim :)

Every so often I put the electricity off at the mains for an hour or two. The difference between being in a quiet house on at the mains and a quiet house off at the mains is amazing. The silence is totally different without a crackling background of electricity.

Thats why I love camping so much. Well, that and there no real housework to do in a tent. :D

[TheNorthKingdom]

It is a fucking great idea - making the world more aware of the global environment issues :)

[holdout]

they keep boasting statistics about how the one hour of darkness is equal to like 9085435039485 megawatts of electricity and saves 9080923859023845 of whatever.

but what about the rest of the 8,760 hours in the year when there is no "Earth Hour" event going on? basically, you might be saving what appears to be a phenomenal amount of energy, but that's totally an incorrect approach. RELATIVELY you are trying to save Earth/save the climate/prevent global warming, by hardly even lifting a pinky finger, for all that one hour counts. you are essentially doing NOTHING by participating in earth hour except making a statement which no government entity will care to notice.

holdout FTW :D

[scudinvi]

Well my opinion is it probably would'nt be much help but what it does, is it will show how many people are willing to do their part to save the earth even if the difference is minute. It will also show that man kind can come together despite their differences to serve a common good.

So i'll be participating in this one.

[Pseudo]

I don't think its about what gets saved in that one hour.Much more about raising awareness and making people realise that even switching off the light in the hallway in the evenings can help,making people realise that small savings from one person can add up and do count and are worth making!

:)

[ShaggyMaengDa]

Nice one Jim. We all could do it.:)

[Pseudo]

Get yer lights aaaaaaaaaafffffffff!!!!! !! :D:D:D

[Cofster]

Well I put all lights off and I'm just using my laptop on battery. I think it's kinda hypocritical but oh well why not. Also, I can see from the window that I'm probably the only one around here doing it : )

[Pseudo]

Hey Cofster :) I love candlelight.

Its all about the lighting really,isn't it?Millions of lights are left on in rooms where no people are for no reason so thats really wasteful.Its not wasteful to switch something on that you're using ;)

[madasslass]

Oh shit...I forgot!

[Pseudo]

Remembering you forgot is something :p :D

[Pandy]

In my country almost 85-90% of electricity generation is from hydro, the other 10-15% is from geothermal and at peak times from natural gas and coal.

turning off our lights saves water running over a turbine, I thought this was rather ironic. we weren't even asked to turn the lights off at the peak times when our country is actually burning the natural gas or coal?!

the gesture is great but in reality how does turning our lights off for 1hr actually slow or stop climate change? it doesn't. sure it makes people more aware of climate change - or does it? aren't we >up-to-here< with already knowing about climate change?

personally I thought this was a feel-good-achieve-nothing advertisement for the WWF...

[Pseudo]

In all honesty I think a lot of the 'climate change' propaganda is just that.Governmental bullshit.(and NO,I don't want to discuss that at great length,thankyou :p)

I do however believe that human beings in the western world tend to be disgustingly wasteful.On a large scale I see that as serious abuse of the earths resources and theres no need for it.On a personal scale I see it as a real waste of money.Therefore I like anything that may make people be less wasteful.I don't care about reasons,I don't care which association promotes whatever it is that we're being asked to do.I care about being less wasteful.

:)

[Bali Muncher Jim]

I live on a big estate and saw that quite a few houses did it, it probably wont achieve much, but atleast you can feel like your making some sort of contribution rather than saying who gives a flip.

I've not heard of doing anything like this before, so who knows if this got a good response others may be inspired to organise something and with the right coverage / word of mouth, we could over throw the government (awaits knock on door from MI5) :D

[Kahless]

Well said, the climate change debate was never over. And indeed the World Cabal seems to be pushing it more than ever thinking the evidence is undeniable.

Humans might be causing some global warming, but for me I'm still on the fence, Mother Earth is a living breathing organism and the climate change thing is actually an insult to her resilience.

Kymatica will provide a very clear and logical explanation of this living organism theory.

[Pandy]

The thing is for me is that I'm certain that global warming is occurring, there really is too much evidence around to say that it's not, but I'm also on the fence as too what is actually happening, is it a natural thing that is happening with or without human assistance or is it completely human caused?... putting that argument to one side - I do believe that we need to reduce our atmospheric pollution and we do need to begin taking better care of our environment, our home, it is the only one we have right now.

[SoulSeeker]

personally I thought this was a feel-good-achieve-nothing advertisement for the WWF...
OK, this applies to 90% of all campains. But its still worth while, since there are still people left that dont spent a second thinking about the future and their impact on it.

Sadly tho, in germany this wasn "advertiset" at all. If you look at the google earth bookmarks where people said "here something happened for earth-hour", you will see a blanked of bookmarks covering europe, with a big open field that is germany.
But whatever... its much more important what legislations are passed to counter global-warming, than what a fiew individuals do once a year.

So to gat back to your comment: Its not about what that one hour a year does, historicly and globaly speaking, its what that hour does to the concious decissions of the general public. If you where part of the "one hour without wasting electricity" hype, you will think twice about leaving your PC on for 9 hours while you are at work, or the light on while you are out partying etc etc... And eventho the economy is wasting FAR more than the individual could ever waste, if the gerneal public starts caring, the economy will start too. Because when you can make an advertisment presenting your company as Eco-Friendly, you will trump the competition. (in the minds of ad-companys atleast)

[Pandy]

how many more 'climate change campaign' fridge stickers do you need? personally I'm tired of the various organisations creating new relevance for themselves by jumping on the global warming 'cash cow' crisis. I have yet to see anything of any real substance... seen more action from the state of California in the restriction of polluting cars, which is a brilliant and lost cost idea that not many other states or countries are adopting.

From my perspective I see a lot of people talking about change but never really making it... I see governments talk change and signing up to ponzi carbon trading schemes, while they continue to mine coal to sell to china - to burn in one of their hundreds of new coal power stations.

the wake up call that people need to hear is that NOTHING IS CHANGING. despite all the awareness and all the new legislation - carbon emissions are still increasing. at least in my country they are increasing, while the population thinks they're doing really well... from all these feel-good awareness campaigns.

I get all hot-headed about this sort of thing - a family member was involved in promoting this in my country - you can't even hold an open discussion with her due to the almost religious zeal that she holds for this program - it's infuriating.

[Bigles]

:o I forgot too I am ashamed to say.

It is of course symbolism, but symbolism is really important in galvanising people's commitment to change. I live in a country where the environment minister has refused to allow climate change warnings on television. It is a disgrace.

The main issue that I find is apathy. People don't want to give up their consumerist ways for the sake of our planet. The whole denial thing reminds me of the denial that smoking kills. How many people died as a result of the farce that surrounded that issue.

People need to waken up to the reality of what is going to happen here and start doing their bit. It is easy to sit back and blame industry, but we drive industry - simple supply and demand. We don't have to do much. Waste a bit less, use public transport when we can, buy less crap that we don't really need, eat less meat (the meat industry is causing more greenhouse gas emissions that the automotive industry and every car on the road).

Sorry for the rant but this stuff scares the crap out of me and I get so angry at the impotence of our government and many more around the world.