Earth Hour on March 29th 8 to 9 pm

paramthegreat · Post by **paramthegreat** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 7:49 pm

Most SPCR members also care about lowering power consumptions on their computers and reduce impact on environment. So, I would urge everyone to participate in this and get your friends and family too.

A step towards reducing global warming...

On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund. Read more at Earth Hour - An hour of difference

scdr · Post by **scdr** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:04 pm

Looked sort of interesting, until I got to the part where they suggested things to do in the dark. It did not seem like they have really thought this out well and considered the total environmental impact of their scheme. Almost all of their suggestions involved using flashlights!

No analysis was given of the energy efficiency of flashlights vs CFLs, or of the environmental impact of batteries, etc. Likewise they blithely suggested things like installing a new energy efficient item, like a DVD player. With no mention of impact of manufacturing/recycling consumer electronics. (What happened to reduce/recycle/reuse?).

Now a standy power scavenger hunt might make some sense. (Find everything with an LED, warm transformer, etc.)

If they had suggested going out star-gazing, that would be a reasonable activity that this might enable. If a significant number of lights in a community were turned off, it might actually be possible to see the stars, something most city dwellers can't do. (And educate people about light pollution.)

xan_user · Post by **xan_user** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:30 pm

Google's gone dark for Earthhour...

http://www.google.com/intl/en/earthhour/

and I don't mean www.Blackle.com

mr. poopyhead · Post by **mr. poopyhead** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:48 pm

earth hour is the biggest load of BS in the world...

people say that it's just for awareness... awareness? you'd have to be living on pluto, not to know that we're supposedly up the environmental creek without a paddle... we're bashed over the head with this climate change stuff EVER DAY... and we need awareness?
i'll tell you what it really is... it's just an event designed to be self-gratifying lip service so that people can justify the way the live the other 364 days and 23 hrs of the year. people aren't interested in real change... they'd rather stoke their environmental ego for an hour just once a year... then go on living out the unsustainable american dream...

i predict this thing will be exactly like all that live 8 and "make poverty history" crap... highly hyped, widespread participation, and then 2 weeks later, people go right back to not giving a crap... it raised awareness alright... then a whole lot of apathy right after...

earth hour? no thanks... i'm keeping my TV on to watch some hockey... then i'll make some real change on monday by taking the bus to school...

FartingBob · Post by **FartingBob** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 4:19 am

Asking people to turn off their lights in the evening when it'll be dark is stupid. What the hell is everyone supposed to do? Sit in the dark and think about how this will apparently make everyone more aware of an issue that is already a hot topic.
Reminds me of the live8 music festival saying its not going to collect donations to buy food for the starving, its just their to "raise awareness of the issue", as if anyone was not aware and needed aging rock stars to sing at them about it.

Theres much better ways of getting people to cut power consumption.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 6:32 am

I'd jump on it in a NY minute, but there's an all-new COPS on at 8:00PM. Can't miss that!

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 11:04 am

FartingBob wrote:Asking people to turn off their lights in the evening when it'll be dark is stupid. What the hell is everyone supposed to do?

You could go to bed, to sleep or otherwise.

I'm planning on going on a walk around the city.

Yeah it's a gimmick, and yeah I already use little power, but why not? I'm not a Canadiens fan.

yefi · Post by **yefi** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 12:13 pm

I heard something about this on the crappy radio station they listen to at my workplace. What I found funny was how they had organised "lights off" music concerts. Have they no idea how much energy a powered amp uses or all the electric appliances at the bar?

Talk about token gestures. We're full of them. We'll turn off our lights for an hour, while global energy consumption will rise unabated for another year on trot.

Here's an idea for you, turn off your lights when you're driving at night down unlit streets. It's just as stupid and as inefficacious.

aristide1 · Post by **aristide1** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 12:44 pm

Im sick of this small fry stuff. In a few years my house will need a new roof. It faces south so I want the entire southern exposure to be a passive solar heat system. The heat will get pumped into the cellar, and what do I care if it reaches 95 degrees down there. There's rarely any talk about passive solar heat, everybody wants to sell an electric system, with or without storage (batteries, replacements, toxic chemicals, crap) but even with government incentives that borders on 40% of totals costs I'm not interested in a system that under best conditions will have a payback of about 4 scores and seven years.

If people aren't even interested in replacing an ancient inefficient boiler ($3500+ for a typical home) and guarantee themselves a minimum 10% return on their money every year then what exactly is it they will do to lower their energy use?

Want a small task that will lower your fuel costs and reduce air pollution? Sharpen the blade on your lawn mower this year, watch it use like 1/3rd less fuel. And side valve engines are awful pollution-wise.

Hydrazine · Post by **Hydrazine** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 1:15 pm

i don't think this is a very smart idea,

most power stations don't like it if the electricity demands drop suddenly.
don't excactly know what the consequences would be, but if they have to shut off the power stations, getting them upo and running them again would cost a lot more than some light bulbs running for an hour.

i thinks people should invest in some better and safer ways to save power than turning of a few light bulbs for an hour.

making us less oil-dependent would be a great start.

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 1:41 pm

aristide1 wrote:Want a small task that will lower your fuel costs and reduce air pollution? Sharpen the blade on your lawn mower this year, watch it use like 1/3rd less fuel. And side valve engines are awful pollution-wise.

Better yet, don't use an engined mower.

aristide1 · Post by **aristide1** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 2:14 pm

qviri wrote:
aristide1 wrote:Want a small task that will lower your fuel costs and reduce air pollution? Sharpen the blade on your lawn mower this year, watch it use like 1/3rd less fuel. And side valve engines are awful pollution-wise.
Better yet, don't use an engined mower.

Better? Definitely, but viable?

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 2:38 pm

Not for all, certainly, but for many people, absolutely. My parents live in a semi-detached house on a lot that's larger than many (especially compared to the pocket lawns of new subdivisions) and have no problem getting by with a push mower.

Mind you, they aren't sticklers for millimetre-perfect lawns. But they do care more than I do.

scdr · Post by **scdr** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 2:57 pm

As a follow-up to my previous post about what to do during earth hour.
Turns out that this is the beginning of National Dark Sky Week in the USA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Dark_Sky_Week

So we can help raise awareness of light pollution and try to take back the night.

mr. poopyhead · Post by **mr. poopyhead** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:43 pm

well.... now that this nonsense is over...

is anyone more aware of our planet's plight? did anyone have a great environmental epiphany that will inspire them to live more sustainably? is energy consumption going to be curbed in any kind of long term way?

or was this one big marketing exercise to give everyone a big eco-boner and pat on the back?

see you next year.

Plissken · Post by **Plissken** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:38 pm

mr. poopyhead wrote:see you next year.

Or, if you happen to live in North Korea, see you tomorrow.

aristide1 · Post by **aristide1** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 6:47 am

Well since diesel is now $4.30/gallon around here I think more people will need to get used to being without.

Thank God for that oil flow from Iraq, right?

floffe · Post by **floffe** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 7:14 am

qviri wrote:Not for all, certainly, but for many people, absolutely. My parents live in a semi-detached house on a lot that's larger than many (especially compared to the pocket lawns of new subdivisions) and have no problem getting by with a push mower.

Mind you, they aren't sticklers for millimetre-perfect lawns. But they do care more than I do.

My family does pretty well with a push-mower too. I think our garden is ~800mÂ² (8000 sq ft). It might take an hour to mow it instead of 20 minutes with an engine-powered one, but that's not really a deal-breaker when you spend 6 hours in the garden each week anyway...

yefi · Post by **yefi** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 9:39 am

Plissken wrote:
mr. poopyhead wrote:see you next year.
Or, if you happen to live in North Korea, see you tomorrow.

I think you can spot Kim Jung-il's bedroom light if you look closely enough. He's no doubt staying up watching his huge collection of vintage movies.

scdr · Post by **scdr** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:49 am

floffe wrote:
qviri wrote:Not for all, certainly, but for many people, absolutely. My parents live in a semi-detached house on a lot that's larger than many (especially compared to the pocket lawns of new subdivisions) and have no problem getting by with a push mower.

Mind you, they aren't sticklers for millimetre-perfect lawns. But they do care more than I do.
My family does pretty well with a push-mower too. I think our garden is ~800mÂ² (8000 sq ft). It might take an hour to mow it instead of 20 minutes with an engine-powered one, but that's not really a deal-breaker when you spend 6 hours in the garden each week anyway...

It beats spending time at the Gym.

The big things with push mowers - keep them in good shape (sharp, no rust, gears clean), and don't let the grass get too tall.
For the tall stuff, a scythe works nicely.

Or you could Rent a Ruminant
http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... cides.html