Earth Hour - 4 oz cities this time!

[fringe_dweller]

wow! no adelaide tho :(

'World copies Aussie lights out
December 14, 2007 02:14pm
Article from: AAP

FOUR Australian capitals will be joined by nine international cities in switching off their lights for an hour next year to highlight global warming.

Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra will plunge into darkness at 8pm local times on March 29 to cut greenhouse gas emissions as part of the International Earth Hour campaign.

They will be joined by a host of cities including Chicago, Toronto, Manila and Tel Aviv, with many others expected to sign up to the campaign in early 2008.

The concept is the brainchild of World WWF Australia, which approached the City of Sydney more than 18 months ago with the concept.

WWF Australia chief executive Greg Bourne said the inaugural Earth Hour this year attracted attention from around the world and he expected governments, businesses, community leaders and individuals to turn off their lights in large numbers.

"The majority of people in the world now live in our cities and cities are major contributors to global warming and cities need to show a lead in reducing greenhouse gas emissions," Mr Bourne said.

He said Earth Hour in Sydney took the equivalent of almost 50,000 cars off the road and got Sydneysiders talking about rescuing their planet.

Sydney Mayor Clover Moore said 2.2 million corporate and residential Sydneysiders joined the voluntary blackout on March 31.

"It inspired and achieved a terrific response," Ms Moore said.'

from

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22923842-2,00.html

[iceman]

But is it a full moon again?

[fringe_dweller]

LOL try that again moon rises at 10:46 PM non daylight time - say qld, and 11:46 PM DST!? sheeesh! hope i got it right this time!

[fringe_dweller]

hhmm whens daylight savings end again - at the end or beginning of march? cant remember, my SNP seems buggy today!

[ving]

gah! when will they do it at a good time?

its the thought that matters i guess :rolleyes:

[glenc]

http://www.earthhour.org/
Saturday 29/3 8pm. It is last Q moon and still DST.
Add your name to the Earth Hour movement here. Once registered, you'll receive useful tools and tips to help you get even more involved.

[gaa_ian]

That's great to hear about.
I have signed up, and I will be encouraging others to do the same.
Even if it only serves to make people aware of the effect light pollution has on our night skies it will be a good thing !

[h0ughy]

Earth hour almost seems to be a total waste of time; it should be earth night and go from sunset to sunrise. The power stations take a long time to power up a generator, and to shut one down, and I can tell you that the 1hour with the lights off will not stop the power being generated; it’s not worth their time, but for all night they might keep a turbine offline during the peak load time?? All councils should have the street lights turned off as well, but that won’t happen unless there is a natural disaster!! While in principle I agree with the objective of the night, the practicalities have been underestimated, or in the case of savings severely overrated!!!!

They will burn the same amount of coal, or fuel oil to keep the turbines going – waiting for that token surge to come back when we turn everything back on.

SO yes I will token gesture and switch the light off, but behind the scenes the turbines keep working......

[erick]

Daylight saving ends 6th April in NSW/ACT/QLD/VIC/TAS; 30 March in WA

[erick]

Edit: Disregard. University have just advised that street lighting will not be switched off. No go!


My University has announced it is participating. I've asked how dark is it going to be in the University's main road (I bet they leave the street lamps on). If dark enough, I've offered to set up a few scopes. I've checked the location and Stellarium, and figure there are a few things that will be above the adjacent buildings. I'll cheat and go for Saturn, of course, as one target. Might be able to get M42, Carina, M41.

So it's possible I might get a scope or two out in, what is effectively, the CBD of Melbourne, but hopefully shielded from direct light. Only for 2 hours probably, say 7:30 - 9:30. I've also said we'd need parking and a security guard present :scared: If the Uni Admin comes back interested (photos and articles for Uni mags, I guess), I'll check our the prospective location more closely to check what can be seen. Any Melbournite interested in being part of this, PM me.

[Ric]

I agree with Houghy, it should be Earth night and make it every Friday and Saturday night.

That would be good value

[fringe_dweller]

thanks guys! :) yep joined .. just a note, Adelaide is participating now as well, hope to make some use of it all!.
I agree, and would vote for earth night too!! and weekly! where do i sign! :)

[Blue Skies]

Yes, make that 6 cities - it has been advertised in Perth too so I expect at least some of the city to join in.

[gaa_ian]

I am pushing very hard to get our town involved.
I am planning an viewing night on the town oval.
Local Radio announcements are going up tomorrow.
I have emailed everyone from the Mayor to the biggest company CEO's
Sometimes you just have to take a stand and be counted !

[iceman]

8pm seems too early to do it :( It's still practically twilight at that time.

At least it's not full moon this time.

[CoombellKid]

It would be nice to get that pesky distant light dome off my northern horizon.

regards,CS

[gaa_ian]

Our Job as I see it is to associate Earth hour with Astronomy !
Might help to dispel a few myths:
1. Its a full moon, are you doing an astronomy night ?
2. Oh..... so your an Astrologer !
3. Would you like me to turn the lights on so you can see what your doing ?
Et..Al :screwy:

[Argonavis]

What global warming?

Do you mean the modest cycle that is now is a cooling phase (see attached)??

[Argonavis]

or this even scarier scenario?

[Argonavis]

Personally I will be leaving a few extra lights on to maintain the base load.

Not that I really need to, the last "Earth Hour" only saw a dip of 2% in Sydney's electricity consumption.

IF someone wants to sit in the dark to feel better about themselves, good luck to them, but I can't see any benefit arising.

Most of the light pollution we observe is from streetlights. Easily fixed with full cut off fixtures, if only this could be achieved.

[thunderchildobs]

The Qld government is taking part in the Earth hour, but i wonder if they are taking it seriously. I work for a government department and received an email today saying what we should do. It included the following in bold

"... Also,staff are asked to close all blinds along the exterior office windows if possible. .."

I wonder if the department is more worried about being embarrased or pretending to care about the environment.

Additionally our building is currently being renovated. There appears to be two newly installed upwardly pointing flood lights on the front of the building.

[GrahamL]

great idea but aside a warm fuzzy feeling for those who make the effort
does it do a lot ?...streetlights are a problem for sure but they asfaik in a lot of suburbia were always there ( yes turning them off late ) would be fantastic ..something I have noticed over the years visiting family in Brisbane
is that while heavy industry has long gone ,the light pollution has gone through the roof ..my feeling is Architectural design is a major contributer to light pollution within light industry these days ... the ways you can pretty up a few slabs of concrete
are pretty limited IMO ..but throw tastefull and decrotive lighting into the mix and you could almost build a course structure
around it and encourage it as an integral part of modern design .:screwy:
http://www.arch.usyd.edu.au/programs_of_study/postgraduate/illumination_design.shtml


At days end whats wrong with locking up .. turn your alarm system on ..lights off ..and go home ??


I'll happily turn of the lights :)... funny thing while typing this and before correcting some spelling the power went off for a half hour :)

[JonathanN]

FWIW, online media sources are quoting the National Trust of NSW president as saying the Trust intends to classify the NSW sky (day and night) as a thing worthy of heritage protection.

http://www.spaceinfo.com.au/nswsky.html
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23443024-29277,00.html


Cheers,

Jonathan Nally
Editor
Spaceinfo.com.au
www.spaceinfo.com.au (http://www.spaceinfo.com.au)

[fringe_dweller]

I can't believe a member here wouldnt support this idea, even if just for purely cynical and/or selfish reasons ;) and just hope it grows even bigger :thumbsup: the mainstream widening of awareness of LP=power factor alone is worth it? baby steps

we just had a 15 day long heatwave here in adelaide, a one in 3000 year heatwave it was estimated (for this coastal capital city), now it is about to snow i think tonight, :cold: wouldnt those extremes possibly make the graph averages unreliable? btw we had the coldest feb ever on record just prior the heatwave

i only have praise and support for the concept and the people behind the scenes making it happen :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

i think it is forecast clouds and rain here sat night :lol:

[MrB]

Last year it was just Sydney, this year it's about 370(?) cities around the world, next year.....

Last year and this year it's only 1 hour.... but in a couple of years?

Sure, it doesn't do much, but baby steps......

[fringe_dweller]

i'll admit i was a serious man-made climate change or GW sceptic for a long time, but now i would class myself a fence sitter or agnostic even, and i get a sense we are in the majority? thesedays.

one thing the sceptic in me finds hard to get past, is to my mind and perception, of all the climate change whistle blower's the many earth scientists from NASA are the heavyweights in the pro GW camp for credibility. I mean what do they hope to gain from it? its hard to imagine they are working for the nuke plant people, who have the most to gain of anybody really, sat pics dont lie, is the glacier that supplies the ganges suddenly replenished? have all these glaciers suddenly restored to their former glory? how does that fit in with the charts?

anyway it is well proven that particulate pollution stops/hinders rainfall in those areas under it, that isnt rocket science for a start, so pollution does matter just from that alone.

and anyone that doesnt believe the sudden dramatic urbanisation/and western-like consumption of more than 2 billion people, and more to follow in africa and elsewhere eventually, and its affect on the planet and how in the long term, sustainable that is enviromentally, should be maybe concerned about the long term future or even short term of the entire planet in some way?

i say build the damn newk power plants now, and shut them up, or otherwise get used to Earth MOONTH every second month :D thats your choice!
or we could just turn tassie into one giant series of hydro electric power dams - thats my plan ;) :lol: :whistle:

[gaa_ian]

From my point of view here in Nhulunbuy Earth Hour has already been a success.
I have in the past 3 days since my return from NACAA
* Done 2 Promo's on our local radio for the event
* Done my first Talk back radio appearance on Darwin Radio about the event
* Got the Company that runs the town and the council turning off major sources of light pollution for the night
* Involved all the local Schools in an Astronomy night on the local oval
* Got the major business in the town center on side to turn their lights off too !

Even to get people thinking about doing something for the enviroment, much less doing something is a major step forward.

That it's, I am now THE local Greenie/Astronomer/Science Guru ;)

[Davros]

In January 2006, in a UK government-commissioned report, the head of the British Antarctic Survey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Antarctic_Survey), Chris Rapley, warned that this huge west Antarctic ice sheet may be starting to disintegrate, an event that could raise sea levels by at least 5 metres (16 ft). Estimates by others have ranged from 6 to 15 m (20–50 ft). Rapley said a previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report playing down worries about the ice sheet's stability should be revised. "The last IPCC report characterized Antarctica as a slumbering giant in terms of climate change," he wrote. "I would say it is now an awakened giant. There is real concern." [Wikipeadia quote] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Antarctic_Ice_Sheet#_note-NS-2-2-05)

Well the sleeping giant certainly woke up. Here's hoping that all the people sitting on the fence are right :(

[gaa_ian]

You are refering to this story I presume Davros ?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,341428,00.html

[Davros]

Yeah that's the one. I'm not running screaming for the hills but it seems the potential effects they've feared of global warming are becoming fact at a rapid rate.

[Argonavis]

This is hysteria gone mad.

The temperatures in the Antartic have not changed significantly for over 30 years.

[Argonavis]

Overall, there has been some minor changes of 0.2 degrees...

do you really think that + or - 0.2 degress when the average annual temperature is 50 below will make a difference?

[Argonavis]

overall, global sea ice is behaving normally

[Argonavis]

as is the antarctica sea ice

[Argonavis]

So why do these stupid hysterical stories make it to the media?

Why do we have "documentaries" what spread lies?

For the media, it makes a great story, and that is what tabloid TV is all about. Make them emotional.

More likely, it is a rather effective method to secure research grants.

The calving of icebergs (even very big ones - and it is only in the last few years with remote sensing satellites that we have got a window on this process) is normal for this time of year in the antarctica - it is late summer.

Really nothing to see here. Sound and fury about nothing. Which is what AGW is. Biggest scientific fraud since the Piltdown Man saga.

[fringe_dweller]

oh dear, an andrew bolt-on neocon sh8tstirrer extrordinaire , and the troll central news.com.au opinion/comment neo-con 16 yr olds and retired farmers brigade of UBER TROLLS R US lol

heres some greenie hippies for ya

http://www.woopidoo.com/biography/rupert-murdoch/green-speech.htm

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2008/2008-03-05-01.asp

i love this bit from bush

"We're also working with our friends overseas for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership," Bush said. "I believe developing nations ought to be encouraged to use nuclear power. I believe it's in our interests, I believe it will help take pressure off the price of oil, and I know it's going to help protect the environment."

[fringe_dweller]

here's some more myth peddling lefty greenie hippy troublemakers

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/06/2026368.htm

i like this bit

"If you believe that greenhouse gases are a priority, like a lot of us, if you take the issue seriously like I do and John [Howard] does, then you should be supportive of nuclear power," Mr Bush said.

and this tree hugging scammer

http://www.liberal.org.au/team/malcolmturnbull/

[fringe_dweller]

:prey2: awesome! :2thumbs: cant be long to that angry mob of local townsfolk lynching party arrives now Ian :lol: :P

[gaa_ian]

Yes Kearn ... I will have my security detachment with me :help:
I think most people are happy to set in the dark for an hour .... so long as they can still watch their big screen TV's :P

It was interesting to see your figures Argonavis, to me it looks like an overall decline in sea ice since 2004 (with a few high peaks)?

[GrahamL]

'seems" to be clearing a little from the south in northern nsw ,maybe here and se qld will clear later tonight:)

[matt]

Yep. Is clearing here in Bris too.

Gimmick or not we're going to make the most of it at home tonight.

All lights out and a candlelit dinner. :)

[AstralTraveller]

Argonavis,

Thanks for trying to introduce some facts and figures into the debate. However it would be more helpful if you

posted figures large enough for me to see clearly:sadeyes:
added some explanatory text
and, most importantly, quoted your sourcesI notice that one of your figures is from IPCC 1995. This appears strange considering that the 2007 report is available at http://www.ipcc.ch/

Anyway, the sky is reasonable here in Wollongong but better in Picton. I also note that the wind in Goulburn and Moss Vale has moved to the WNW which should bring clearer skies. The WNW is obviously on the leading edge of the front that is on its way but hopefully the sky will be OK until moonrise. So I'm off over the mountain to gather some extraterrestrial photons.

[Glenhuon]

"If you believe that greenhouse gases are a priority, like a lot of us, if you take the issue seriously like I do and John [Howard] does, then you should be supportive of nuclear power," Mr Bush said.

Yep. We can sell you Uranium, but sunlight and wind are free.

Bill

[mark3d]

thats what one crikey.com.au reader said but another, who certainly sounded like he knew what he was talking about, said it only takes about 10 minutes (at least with gas turbines). so i guess if there was a noticeable reduction in demand they will actually generate a bit less power. but then i bet they will need to generate a bit more to cope with the peak at 9pm when everything goes back on ;)

[mark3d]

thats too cynical for me. scientists, whose inherent purpose and motivation is to find the real explanation behind phenomona have all conspired to find a bogey man to ensure their long term relevance?

versus:

scientists have identified a POTENTIAL issue and some significant vested interests have invested billions, possibly trillions, into creating FUD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt) to ensure their long term relevance.

and then every man and his dog who has an axe to grind or a buck to make has cast their own spin on the issue. who knows what to believe?

personally im more concerned about things like benzene in unleaded petrol fumes and the effect of diesel fumes (25x more carcinogenic than tobacco smoke) we are swimming in the stuff every day.

[mark3d]

The Planet
SBS
9.40pm – 11.10pm
Saturday 29 March 2008
http://www.yourtv.com.au/guide/index.cfm?action=session_info&event_id=21495587&region_id=81&sid=4187280&loc=grid


.

[Ric]

Did anyone notice any darkening of the skies through a reduction of the skyglow.

Out my way the glow of Canberra about 40km to the west of me seemed a bit dimmer than it usually is, it may also have been caused by my third glass of red also.

Still I did my bit and turned of the lights as I always do being an amateur astonomer.

Cheers

[astroron]

The only electricity I used was running the fridge,everything else was turned of at the wall
My only light was my battery powered camp light
It is normally dark round here so there was no difference
Ron

[fringe_dweller]

well i fired up the V12 Hummer that runs on the blood of liddle biddy cutesy baby seals, at 12 gallons a millimetre economy and we moseyed on up to a hill overlooking our fair city, and once earth hour was over motored roaringly home not sparing the baby seals blood, and fired up the 22 foot long plasma tv to watch the results on the news, and boy did we feel good about ourselves! :D

well kinda, did go to a lookout, and the CBD was certainly blacked out but yeh the streetlights were still on, surprise surprise, but man we did notice most homes were dark and something weird was going on, there was kind of a hush, ..all over the world,,,, i would liken it to an eclipse of the city, a similar thing, but the vast majority of homes were completely blacked out, dunno if it was all deliberate? and our neighbours all seemed blacked out, maybe they were all turned on by the soft angelic candellight? sooo dunno seems like a success from one view, but the blazing footy lights of norwood oval kind of ruined the only view of the blacked out cbd

one thing that i cant believe it was scheduled during the end of the televising of the crows game :screwy: :rofl:

[fringe_dweller]

Hi mark3d, yep watched it, but werent any sceptics interviewed, i accidently watched the now old 2006 '6 degrees' one, which i hadnt seen before, altho i knew of it well, recently, that was very good too, yep hard to get out the thousands of years old shrinkin glaciers symptoms, that doesnt fit into the mini warm ages theory does it, how can it if they were equally warm climate swings, how did they survive those periods?

[gaa_ian]

Well we did our Earth Hour Obs night and it was well attended.
The biggest benefit is that I have realized that we can do public observing nights on our town oval.
It just needs 1 or 2 sets of lights switched off (not hard to do) and we can have an observing night that is easily accessible to the public.

[jjjnettie]

I noticed no significant difference to Brisbane's sky
glow last night.
High clouds meant no observing.

Last night was our first cold night of the season. Brrr.
I wish I'd gotten up early for Jupiter, it was crispy clear this morning.

[Karlsson]

This was my first one, last year during Earth Night I was overseas, so I was really curious.

Sydney CBD is to my south, but I did not notice much of a difference, was a bit disappointed... Most neighbours seemed oblivious, our house was the only dark one - save for two red headlamps...

[gaa_ian]

These things are always a process and the Media dont always get it right either :shrug:
"Air News" which is syndicated to dozens of community stations around the country reported on Friday that it was "Tonight" and they did it again this morning (Sunday) reporting that it is going to be on "Tonight" !
Yes I have contacted them and aired my concern.
Anyway, we had a good earth hour Obs night.
We had 3 scopes out and the local high school even bought out their LX-90 for the event (a first !)

[ngcles]

Hi All,

Well, at Sydney Observatory we had a bit of an open night last night to coincide and I have to say that from almost the centre of the CBD at least, it was substantially darker -- amounting to about 0.3- 0.4 magnitudes of ZLM. We are pretty open to the North there and in that direction there was a big *visible* participation rate.

But, at the end of the hour, how did the city celebrate? With fireworks over the Opera House!

Yep, we burnt/ blew-up a whole lot of stuff to make -- more carbon dioxide. :doh:

Hmmm ...

As somewhat of a sceptic over human inducted global warming myself, it is interesting to see that one of the government's former top advisors on climate change David Evans, has now come out to proclaim his severe doubts over this global warming "religion".

See his article here:

http://tinyurl.com/3dbbrb


And he attributes any observed change as also being possibly consistent with change (strengthening) in the Earth's magnetic field over the last few decades and its relationship with cosmic rays and cloud formation. Has to be said that branch of science is still in its infancy.

Earth Hour was a good thing though no matter what stance you take on climate change. It can only help raise awareness of the night sky and astronomy. Whether you believe in human induced global warming or not, it is wrong to wilfully waste an energy resource, and worse still to simply use it to illuminate the night sky.

Best,

Les D
Contributing Editor
AS&T

[acropolite]

In Launceston it was a non event. I couldn't even convince HRH to turn off the one light she was reading the newspaper by. :tasdevil:
The worst polluter, street lighting remained unchanged, the state government's electric authority didn't bother to turn off their lights despite being the most visible source of light pollution in the greater Launceston area.

The transparency here was poor, smoke and some high level cloud (or more smoke) made observing difficult so I packed it in and watched a program called The Planet on SBS. If you're a climate change sceptic that program is worth a look. They presented some cold hard facts and pictorial evidence of the damage we are doing to the planet including statistics on extinction predictions for mammals, fish, birds and reptiles and storm incidence.

[Zuts]

Most big companies join in. For example I work for Westpac (don't hate me :)) and on Saturday they basically locked up the head office for an hour and turned of all the lights.

Normally 5,000 people work in the building so there is always someone there. In this case because of work safety regulations any remaining workers were gathered in a few rooms for the hour and given a free feed until some lights could be turned back on.

Paul

[erick]

I expect you'll find that public safety would have been rated a higher priority and all street lighting would have remained on.



My worry is when our great grandchildren are taught in history lessons the incredible fact that their predecessors took the wonderful raw material for the production of plastics and other petrol chemicals and burnt it in cars and trucks!

[fringe_dweller]

wow in Baia Mare, Maramures, Romania they turned off the streetlights!!!, awesome, geez now i'm jealous :) thats how it should be done, great to see spaceweather getting behind it!

http://spaceweather.com/submissions/pics/s/Sorin-Hotea-earth_hour_bm_1206827299.jpg

some great observations and comments here :thumbsup: I liked that link Les, food for thought, very interesting - there's only debate about the cause it seems, not that its not happening?

Ian, my missus's elderly parents thought it was compulsory, and that it was the night before as well :rolleyes: they turned everything off! and sat in the dark so as not to be arrested? sheeesh

the newspaper depicted earth hour the day before in the paper, with a totally blacked out city with superimposed startrails :doh: and then complained about everyone going to hills vantage points, some co-ordination required?

[cahullian]

I don't know what everyone is worried about. When the volcano erupts under the Yellowstone national park ( and in geological terms it will very soon) the entire northern hemesphere and a lot of the southern will be locked into an ice age for hundreds of years. So I say enjoy the heat while you can because in the next 10,000,000 years or so things are going to be FUBAR.

Gazz

[cahullian]

On a personal note. I work Saturday School of Community Languages and we locked up and turned off all the lights that would normally stay on all weekend.

Gazz

[Suzy_A]

This is what I emailed to the people organising the event near where I live...

Dear Lisa and Russell,

I read with interest in the ‘Fremantle Herald’ and also the same article in some other 'local' and 'independent' paper (owned by a multinational) that “Fremantle and Melville folk are being asked to switch off between 8pm and 9pm on Saturday March 29 for international Earth Hour. [People] can turn off their lights to do something about global warming…” The article also says that there will be a picnic at ParmeliaPark and a barbie at PineLakes. The picture accompanying the article shows three people in the dark holding candles.



I think this is a great idea to help Global Warming!

So, let’s see…


Firstly we are being told that to help global warming we need to sit around in the dark. Great! As for me, I’m going to turn on every light in the house that I’m living in. I’m sure my solar PV panels on the roof will generate more than enough electricity on Saturday to be able to cope with that.



Now what’s next? OK, so instead of using fossil fuel to generate electricity to generate light we are going to use … candles! Now what are they made from? Petroleum wax! Now doing a few calculations we have:


Compact Fluoro Tube - an 18 watts CFT gives about 1000 lumens (ie 1000 candela per steradian or as bright – very roughly – as 1000 ‘standard’ candles) and are about 7% efficient. In one hour, assuming the household is running on normal Verve/Western Power/Synergy electricity, and a coal to electricity conversion efficiency of 32% and 10% line losses, the 18 W CFT would use 62.5 watt-hours or 0.225 MJ of primary (coal) energy. As Collie coal contains 19.7 MJ/kg, to run the CFT for the hour would burn about 11 grams of coal and produce about 20 g of CO2 emissions. Actually it will be slightly less as some NG is also used in the fuel mix, not just coal.



Now a box of candles that I have handy, have written on the side that they burn for 4 hours. As they weight 12 grams, that’s 3g/hr and when burnt will produce about 0.5 candela (as a candela was originally defined as a sperm-whale oil candle burning at about 7g/hr) and about 9 g of CO2.


So to get the same from one 18 W CFT, we need about 2000 candles which will use 6000 g of fuel and produce about 18,000 g of CO2 or 900 times more than a coal-fired CFT.


As for the picnic and BBQ, well, how am I to get to PineyLakes?


A while ago when I wanted to get there from the PerthCity centre, I tried to catch public transport. I went to the TransPerth website and tried to work out how to get there using the ‘Journey Planner’. I typed in where I was and where I wanted to go but it just kept on coming back with bizarre routes – one was to catch a bus from William Street to Success – about 20 km past the Leach Highway/Freeway intersection, then back up the Freeway and off the Freeway at Leach Highway and get off near Piney Lakes. Trip time – over two hours.


The next best suggestion was the train to Fremantle, then a bus to Booragoon, then another down Risley Road and then down Leach Highway. Trip time – over two hours.

I thought there was something wrong with the Journey Planner – surely there must be a bus that goes down the Freeway and then off at Leach Highway – that should be about 15 minutes. But I couldn’t find it, so I phoned TransPerth and asked them. I was told to take the bus to Success or the train to Fremantle…



So how to get to PineyLakes? Drive a car! As the average car uses about 8 L/100 km of petrol and if we assume the average return trip length is 10 km, and say… 200 cars come along, that’s now 360 L of petrol and 810 kg of CO2. Then the BBQ will be burning... LPG? Another great source of CO2! And eating what? Steaks and sausages? The average BBQ steak has resulted in about 15 kg of extra CO2 going directly into the air, excluding that caused by land clearing which would be quite a bit more.



So taking all of this into account, the token gesture of one hour of switching off lights will save how much CO2 and see how many people sitting around burning candles, driving around and saying that renewable energy and energy efficiency is useless?

Regards


Susan

[gaa_ian]

Good Calculations Susan.
One would of course burn a natural bees wax candle, and not one of those nasty petroleum based ones !
Or in the case of Astronomers, use a high efficiency low wattage Red LED.
All said it was good for Astronomy and dark skies world wide.

[Gargoyle_Steve]

We shut everything down a few minutes early - lights, tv, computer, left only the fridges running - and went and sat out the back yard. I had hoped to see a reduction in local lighting and wanted to be out there beforehand to see it happen.

As Jeanette noted earlier it was a surprisingly cool night around some parts of SE Qld (by comparison to the last 5 month anyway) and so the temptation was there to throw some pre-gathered wood into the cast iron firepit and have a bit of a cheery fire.
:campfire:

However we considered the lunacy of generating smoke/CO2 this way and disregarded the idea, in the end we sat there under a non-productive (ie hazy & foggy) sky and talked - just talked - for about 75 minutes.

The only active "consuming" we did was to briefly run LED headlamps as needed while sitting in my pretty dark back yard. I wish I could say that we used my brothers solar charger & recahrgables to run these, sadly the headlampsun AAA's and we don't have any rechargable AAA's yet.

Anyway it was a pleasant hour or so, quite peaceful and quiet and relaxing(there was some gentle music from the Earth Hour party across the road a bit, where all was in darkness).


I did have the idea (remember you read it here first) that the organisers of Earth Hour should have provided a 'poster' file on the website that you could download, print out, and display in your yard to promote awareness.

Something along the lines of "March 29th, 8:00 ... Our lights will be turned off to support Earth Hour 2008 - what will you be doing?"

I hope someone from Earth Hour / WWF reads this - get the posters ready for us for next year guys!

:thumbsup:

[rogerg]

We forgot about earth hour until 8:50ish when my mate and I had finished setting up his 15" Obsession and turned the 40 odd patio lights off and said to each other "hey, it looks a little darker than usual". Prompting us to remember about earth hour and wonder if it was perhaps result of earth hour!

Anyway, we found it quite comical that us keen astronomers had all the patio lights on during earth hour, and forgot to turn anything else off :lol:

Sorry Earth! :)

But hey, we're the kind of people that save electricity every other day of the year.

[§AB]

Agreed. That's all I'm going to say, because if I get started on this whole global warming/climate change/greenie/environmentalism business, my words and conduct will almost certainly earn me a ban :whistle:

[Jen]

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
I second that motion the sky was awsome too that night (so deep) :thumbsup: the moon didnt come up till at least midnight :D

[Ric]

I heard on the news tonight that Canberra had a 73% participation rate in Earth hour.

This would explain the noticable dimming in the sky glow from the west and nothing to do with the three glasses of red :D

Well done to Canberra :thumbsup:

[Jen]

:lol::lol::lol::lol:
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:drink:

[glenc]

I was on the Pyrmont Bridge during Earth Hour and most of the lights on that bridge were off. Most of the city buildings were dark too. I could just see M42 with the naked eye when I shielded out the lights that were still on.