Earth Hour is everyone on board?

Not me. My house uses 100% wind power. Keeping it lit demonstrates that we can have all the clean energy we want, if we pay for it.

Feeling like we're doing something tends to discharge the sense of urgency, and may do more harm than the good done by advertising the problem. The problem is already well-advertised. We need to turn urgency into action, not feelings.

 

We are in. I marked this in my calendar a few days ago.

PA P

 

What is the point of "Earth Hour"? According to wikipedia: "Earth Hour is an annual international event created by the WWF, held on the last Saturday of March, that asks households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change."

So you want me to turn off non-essential lights and electrical appliances for an hour. Why? I would have to turn something on so I could then turn it off. I don't have "non-essential lights" in my house. If I'm using a light I turn it on. If not it stays off. Same with appliances.

Again the point is?

 

So at 8:30pm on Saturday 28-March I should switch off the 9w CFL I use for reading and sit in the dark? If I do I'm "Voting Earth" if I don't I'm "Voting Global Warming".

Sorry. It sounds a bit too much like the "Let's stick it to big oil and not buy gas on X day" schemes.

EDIT: Awareness is a 24 hour / 365 day a year thing.

 

It's not a turbine in our yard. A few of the local utilities offer a 100% wind option. Much cheaper to sign up for that, even at $0.18 per kW-hr, than to spend some $20,000 on a rooftop Solar PV system. If the net cost is ever low enough that we can make a profit after a few years by selling excess power we will go Solar.

 

I'm very much in favor of wind and solar power, preferably initiated on the residential/commercial level (a long way to go technically before that is widely available), rather than through power companies, although our local -- and private -- power company is strong on individual responsibility to lower/modify electrical usage. I'm very much not in favor of gimmicks like Earth Day and Earth Hour, which make people feel good about themselves but do little to actually accomplish something. Put an effort toward meaningful goals.

 

I suppose the edit could have been made from the get go (the less harsh post), but ... better late than never, I always say And I suppose we could all claim that "blah blah (add your own awareness day here) awareness day should be a 24 hour / 365 day a year thing" ... and never have any awareness days (cancer, aids, POW/MIA's RedCross donations etc), from that spin.

Personally we'll be generating nearly 7kw hours during the peak of the day, and by 8:30PM we'll still have surplus backfed onto the grid, so all of you checking out this thread, you go ahead and turn on a couple L.E.D. lights and charge it back to me

 

"You see Oblio, the point is, there is no point"!

Harry Nilsson "The Point" 1971

 

You can argue that it's pointless, but I disagree. Many, many people don't equate using electric lights, or washing machines, or Jacuzzi tubs with global climate change. They also think something global can't be changed by personal action. And businesses just turn on the lights and keep them on, without thinking.

We're a fairly sophisticated group here on PriusChat, so we're a lot more attuned to energy use and waste than most people. I think it's great that the Las Vegas strip is going to go dark, that the flood lights on the Eiffel Tower will be turned off, that the monuments in Washington D.C. will sit in the dark for an hour, if it makes people aware that electric energy is connected to climate change and to them.

In my spare time, I'm the Chairman of the Hamlet of Beavercreek, a rural community south of Portland, Oregon. We were the first community in Oregon to pass a resolution to adopt Earth Hour 2009. We're talking it up in the community, and passed out CFLs at our February Community Meeting to drive home the point that even little steps, like swapping a 60W incandescent bulb out for an equally bright CFL, can save you money and save megawatts of power for our community over the life of the bulb if we all take this small step.

Businesses have been very receptive. Turning out the lights on their signs saves power, money, and shows the community that they participate. Sure, turning out lights and non-essential appliances from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. on March 28 won't be a big deal for any one person, but as a world-wide action, it's significant. Particularly if it gets people to think.

Earthhourus.org
Earth Hour US - Hamlet of Beavercreek

 

I'm going to be driving during that time... oh well, I'll just do it with my headlights off

 

Damn Tony, you've got stamina!

 

No stamina points for this man...

Suburban Philadelphia ice cream shop owner Bob Gerenser, 56, believes global warming is based on faulty science and calls Earth Hour "nonsense."

The resident of New Hope, Pa., and owner of Gerenser's Exotic Ice Cream planned to illuminate his store with extra theatrical lighting.

"I'm going to get everyone I know in my neighborhood to turn on every light they possibly can to waste as much electricity as possible to underline the absurdity of this action ... by being absurd," he said.

The Associated Press: Lights out in 84 countries for Earth Hour 2009

 

Re: No stamina points for this man...

You know I am going to turn EVERY light in my house ON!

When the rest of you sons of bitches invest in at minimum a 2kW Solar system for your home, these little farts in the face gestures are just plain stupid!!!

I have had a 7.5 kW system on line since August '04....

Where the hell are the rest of you?????

 

Re: No stamina points for this man...

Hehe, the very fact that you'll know WHEN to turn on all your lights is the point of this exercise. Namely, awareness...