Earth Hour - Pointless feel-good stuff ?

[Wavytone]

Yes it's on again - 27th March, they want people to turn out the lights for a whole whopping 1 hour at 8:30 pm, just once this year. Oh what a difference that will make.

If these morons were serious about actually doing something with any real impact they should be pushing for all external lights including streetlights, landmarks and office blocks to be turned off at midnight to dawn, EVERY NIGHT.

And we might even be able to see the night sky.

Thoughts ?

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

Warning Warning Danger Will Robinson

[AstralTraveller (David)]

As to the net effect, I completely agree. But this is a consciousness-raising event. It does no more immediate good than planting a couple of trees in the local park does for conserving old-growth forests but it might make people change the way they think. Changing attitudes and behaviour takes repeated re-enforcing of messages and patience.

I don't think any of my neighbours have previously participated but I'll be interested to see what happens this year.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by AstralTraveller

As to the net effect, I completely agree. But this is a consciousness-raising event. It does no more immediate good than planting a couple of trees in the local park does for conserving old-growth forests but it might make people change the way they think. Changing attitudes and behaviour takes repeated re-enforcing of messages and patience.

I don't think any of my neighbours have previously participated but I'll be interested to see what happens this year.

Oh, for a gram of your optimism
I agree with you, but once a year won't do much good I fear. Why not reach for the sky and promote once a month lights out, and campaign for local councils and sporting bodies to put skyward light baffles on those monstrous lighting towers. Surely a lot could be done in this area, and it would do good things for the coal usage quotas....
Rudd, my invoice for $30m consultation fees is in the mail

[Nightshift]

Absolute bunkum, someone's making money out of it somewhere, now if they made councils all over the world turn off all street lights at 10:00pm we'd be achieving something, including astronomy.

[Waxing_Gibbous (Peter)]

If everyone on Earth hasn't been bilked...er...I mean had their 'conciousness raised' by now, nothing like "freeze-your-bum-off-in-the-dark-with-no-telly-hour" is going to do it.
Do something concrete if you feel you have to: walk to work or take public transport. Make the kids walk home from school. Better yet, hold all government departments and officials to the same eco-nazi standards they want to hold us.

[TrevorW]

It's all about production

power plants operate 24hrs per day at night they generate unused power which has to go somewhere (it can't be stored) so councils being Govt support another Govt dept by buying cheap power thinking they are doing us the favour by having street lights on all night

so what happens theres a storm and a lot of houses in Perth where without power for more than a day

[iceman (Mike)]

Why is everyone so negative about it? See the 'bright' side

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by Wavytone

And we might even be able to see the night sky.

Thoughts ?

To quote a very good friend of mine (in Los Angeles) when the last big quake hit there.

Massive power outages. Nearly all streetlights were out.

"OMG...you should have seen the stars!"

Seems a pity mother nature needs to show us from time to time what's real.

[citivolus (Ric)]

One thing that impressed me about Beijing was that office towers and lights on commercial signage were powered off at night by about 23:00. I wish that other countries would pick up on that.

Sure the smoke from the residential neighbourhoods still prevented you from seeing sky, but every bit helps.

[Nesti (Mark)]

Originally Posted by supernova1965

Warning Warning Danger Will Robinson

"Oh the pain-the pain"

[Nesti (Mark)]

Originally Posted by iceman

Why is everyone so negative about it? See the 'bright' side

Dude, there is no bright side...the lights get turned OFF remember!

[freespace]

Originally Posted by TrevorW

It's all about production

power plants operate 24hrs per day at night they generate unused power which has to go somewhere (it can't be stored)

Not quite. When I visited a hydro plant near Canberra as part of first year electrical engineering, one of the things they do do is to buy power when it is cheap, pump water up the dams, and then use it to generate power during peak times then sell it back on the energy market. So unused power can be stored.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-...droelectricity

Regarding earth hour - take a look at Cleanup Australia day. Same kind of thing. You can even argue it is also a conspiracy whereby councils save on cleanup fees by duping their constituents into doing it for free

[Wavytone]

Cleanup Australia has actually had an amazing effect as the oldies here will well remember. Thankfully the rubbish ruining the countryside in former decades is now 99.9% removed, and the attitude of most people has changed for the better.

The trouble with Earth Hour is that it's phoney - in that a bunch of people think this is a significant contribution, when its not even a drop in the ocean of our energy consumption.

[freespace]

Originally Posted by Wavytone

Cleanup Australia has actually had an amazing effect as the oldies here will well remember. Thankfully the rubbish ruining the countryside in former decades is now 99.9% removed, and the attitude of most people has changed for the better.

The trouble with Earth Hour is that it's phoney - in that a bunch of people think this is a significant contribution, when its not even a drop in the ocean of our energy consumption.

Can't one say the same about Cleanup Australia? A bunch of people think it is a significant contribution when it is not even a drop in the ocean of the rubbish we create...

Maybe we will look back when we are "oldies" and say the same thing about Earth Hour...

[phranticsnr (Dan)]

Originally Posted by Nightshift

Absolute bunkum, someone's making money out of it somewhere, now if they made councils all over the world turn off all street lights at 10:00pm we'd be achieving something, including astronomy.

Except that if all the streetlights went out at 10pm every night, violent crime would be up 200%. Everywhere. Immediately.

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

Originally Posted by iceman

Why is everyone so negative about it? See the 'bright' side

I agree but I think you are fighting a losing battle with this one positivity seems greatly lacking in discussions here when it comes to changing the world for the better I think many find it easier to be negitive than to be positive in thought and action.

[duncan]

Hi All,

"IF" we could get all lights turned off at the same time over the entire dark side of the globe, i wonder how much of a "Dimming Signal" it might send into space? "IF" a more advanced civilisation were looking could they possibly detect it? Or is this pure fantasy! Food for thought.

My 2cents worth
Cheers

[OneOfOne (Trevor)]

I don't think Earth Hour is actually targetted at making any difference to the night sky, it is just an awareness thing. You only have to drive into the city any night to see just how many office blocks are lit up. The amount of wasted energy must be huge. Perhaps street lighting could be turned down to half lighting? This would have to make a dramatic effect on energy consumption. Overall though, I think the exercise is nothing more than "touchy feely"....someone will feel good about doing something, but in the big scheme of life I won't make one iota of difference A number of people in our street still leave outdoor lights on, just in case someone comes to the door (at 2am?) or in case their is a burglar out there (at least he won't trip). I am sure a lot also have lights on in empty rooms (in case they need to go in there, or they are frady cats who are scared of the dark).

As for Cleanup Australia, this is a great idea. Rubbish is an accumulation problem, if you clear all of the rubbish in one area it may be several years before it gets back to the same state, if you didn't clean it up, it would continue to get worse as it doesn't reach a saturation point and then cease to get worse.

[anthony2302749]

Hi
Did anyone notice it is nearly a full moon on the 27th of March, what a happy coincidences.