Earth Hour - March 29th 2008, 20:00hrs Local Time

Calling all ATSers,

Please read the following and do your bit. This was done last year in Sydney and with the help of Facebook and ATS, this year could be much much bigger!
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Who: YOU! Everyone around the world
What: www.earthhour.org...
When: March 29, 2008, 8pm your local time
Where: In your own home and/or workplace
Why: To create AWARENESS about energy consumption

This happens in your home or your workplace at 8pm (your local time) on March 29th WHEREVER YOU ARE IN THE WORLD by simply turning off your lights, your TV, your dishwasher, your heating or a/c.

On March 29th, 2008 at 8pm local time Earth Hour will commence ALL AROUND THE WORLD.

Created to take a stand against the greatest threat our planet has ever faced, Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a POWERFUL MESSAGE about the need for action on global warming.

Be part of making Earth Hour 2008 a huge, global success by telling your friends and family. Remember, every single light makes a statement and makes a difference.

Last year, on 31 March 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney (Australia) businesses turned off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour. This massive collective effort reduced Sydney’s energy consumption by 10.2% for one hour, which is the equivalent effect of taking 48,616 cars off the road for a year.

Pledge your support for Earth Hour and find out more about the lights-out campaign at earthhour.org, the official website. www.earthhour.org...
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-All of the above text taken from Liz Van Gerven's event on Facebook.



Please flag and create awareness throughout the HUGE ATS community.

Thank you.

50/50

[edit on 27-3-2008 by fiftyfifty]

Could this possibly work? It has already been swallowed into the black hole of uninteresting threads. It's a shame how little interest people have in the environment when it is something that affects us all.

[edit on 27-3-2008 by fiftyfifty]

reply to post by fiftyfifty


Good day fiftyfifty.

It's a shame how little interest people have in the environment when it is something that affects us all.

I totally agree with you. The problem IMO is what you and the article suggest, actually takes some inititave to accomplish. It's sad that most would rather read about what someone is doing instead of actually doing there part.

I for one will participate,and i hope more decide to take action as well

Flag and a star for you.

My wife and I signed up for this event in our (Ontario, Canada) town about 3 weeks ago. We think it’s a great idea. Not necessarily because of the amount of energy that will be saved but to see the amount that can be cut in just one hour. People seem to think that this is a waste of time but it cost you nothing and maybe Saturday night you can go for a walk or play with your kids instead of watching a movie and staying indoors.
Every person count and for the people that feel they need to do something positive for our future this is the most simplest way do so.

Long live Earth Day! And here’s hoping we can realize how much power we waste!

Flagged.

Starred and signed up.

Thanks for bringing that to our attention.

Dizzie

what a pointless exercise in ` feelgood idiocy `

ok - so you turn off all the electrics for one hour - then what ??

at the end of the hour - the ironing STILL needs doing , the kids supper STILL needs cooking , you STILL have the urge to surf the net for a while

so guess what - you do all the electric requiring things you " put off " during your ` shut down `

and in all likeyhood go to bed later - resulting in having the lights and or heating / aircon on longer

so like total dumbasses - many people will attempt this - and end up using more electricity as a result

what a great way to " save " the planet

reply to post by ignorant_ape



That's an ignorant way way of looking at it in my opinion. Maybe it has some truth in it for some people but the whole exercise is about creating awareness. If this really takes off and a huge amount of electricity is saved people will hopefully see the importance of switching off lights when they are not needed. It is small changes like this that on a mass scale make a HUGE difference.

I now do all my washing at 30'C, do you know how much energy is saved by reducing the temperature by 10'C? Do you know how much energy is saved by turning your central heating down just 2'C? And how much energy could be saved if everyone changed all of their lightbulbs for low energy ones? I think if you knew, you would be surprised and perhaps make that little extra effort to contribute to the wellbeing of YOUR home which is Earth. Whether you believe climate change is man made or not, a little less pollution in the air that you and your children breath can't hurt can it?

Maybe you, Ignorant Ape, are one of the many people that don't give a monkey's and will do as you please, but there are far more people who do.


[edit on 27-3-2008 by fiftyfifty]

Wow is all I have to say. Not surprised though. I'll just consider the source and say I'm pretty sure I herd the same thing when we first started that crazy little thing called recycling!!!!

People laughed said it was stupid and it didn't really matter because other people wouldn't do it and blah, blah

Earthday is about awareness not saving the world by turning our lights out for an hour.

For all those that can see that Earth day is for you!

I'm in... I'm the IT guy at work here so I sent it to all my users. I will pull the breaker at my house. That should drive my daughters batty..

reply to post by ignorant_ape


Well it is more to raise an awareness,then to actually lower consumption. However since it was already here, i heard there WAS a serious decline in consumption, and since majority watches news and not irons at the time , it saved a little also.

Originally posted by SpinDropSmile
maybe Saturday night you can go for a walk or play with your kids instead of watching a movie and staying indoors.
Long live Earth Day! And here’s hoping we can realize how much power we waste!

May I suggest as well that everyone one ATS that reads this thread participate and while doing so go outside with their cameras and or camcorders and just record the skies imagine if everyone who participated would go outside for an hour and hang out and look/film the skies with that many eyes on the skies that night we are bound to catch something. Well thats just a thought it would be cool if everyone did that as well.

In my opinion there is a much larger picture than just turning off the power for an hour. No TV, people might talk to each other, bored kids, people might find ways of entertaining them in the old ways, books, paints, games. Also, in this number not names age, I am sure the "feel-good" factor mentioned in an earlier post, is a positive thing. After discussion all my friends and family are going to participate and feel good about doing it.

I just wanna say thank you for bringing this to the attention of ever1 here. I plan on doing this, and I think its a great idea. Not only am I going to cut my power, but I will spend as much of that hour as I can channeling my perosnal energy back to our earth. With as much as we take from her a hour's worth of my own wont kill me.

I just wanna say the negative comment above is a prime example of the ignorance and intolerance that is destroying our world. You should be ashamed of yourself. True recycling one can wont save the world, but if the 5billion+ people inthis world recycled one can a day it would make a huge difference. If your not part of the soultion your part of the problem.

"Welcome to planet earth, please take your trash with you when you leave."

I am not convinced that global warming is any more the natural climate
changes; the earth has always gone through. Makes a nice political football and scare tactic. To try and get world unity behind authority.
But the science is weak to non-existent; that it is caused by mankind.
The other planets in our solar system are also showing signs of global
warming. So the cause is a phase of the Sun. How will you stop that?

I'll try to remember to follow through here. Thanks for the info!

I am pleased to see all of the positivity coming from this. Maybe if enough people participate it will make mainstream media and create the awareness it is intended to create.

At least if everyone (or the majority) on ATS participates we could acheive the following result;

134000 members switching off 3x 40w lightbulbs = -16,080,000W (16.08MegaWatts) in one hour - at 6p per kw/h that works out at a saving of £9648.00 worth of electricity bill over ONE HOUR just by switching off 3 lights... now take away the TV, the PC, your mobile phone charger etc.. this could be substantially higher.

Collectively, ATS could save at least £9648.00 and 6914.4kg of C02!
Who's in now?

[edit on 27-3-2008 by fiftyfifty]

I like the idea and the intention is good but it seems pointless to me.
I think of it as a rolling stone on hill freezing in motion for one hour then continue rolling down the hill.

And unless the power companies knows about this and have chance slow the generators down or divert the excess power to where it is needed nothing is gained and more power is lost then when nothing happend.

The irony is that when enough of people suddenly turn off everything the excess power surge could wipe out power plants and indeed save power that way. But at the cost of what ?

Why should i care ? Why do i get "blamed" in the first place ? My lights are off 8 hours each night and 8 hours each day already ! And all my lights are energy saving bulbs too !

The ones they should be after are the power hungry and polluting industries ! Sigh...

Oh and this is about raising awareness ? How much more aware can one get when everybody is constantly being told by everybody the world is dying at our hands !? This is about shifting the blame away from the real cause.

[edit on 27-3-2008 by Jeroenske]

I understand what you and others are trying to accomplish but I fail to see what it has to do with global warming. I have issues with what the like of Al Gore are pushing.
To me,global warming and pollution are separate issues and I firmly believe that we must address pollution.
Having said that,I have no problem joining in.In some ways I find it strange that we need to allocate "days" or "hours" to an event to give ourselves a pat on the back.
On a daily basis I have one light bulb turned on if it's dark and I have my computer running.If I decide to watch a movie,I turn off the light and my computer.I do laundry once a week and throw out one trash bag every two weeks.I also drive only when I need to.
All I'm trying to say is that people can do something every single day.
I do appreciate your efforts and count me in for that hour.

First off, it’s not going to make a difference, why? Because we all know that Global Warming is happening, but it’s NOT because of people, it’s a natural cycle (it’s even happening on Mars) so turning your power off won’t make a bit of difference.

But also, for the people who do think it will make a difference, did you know that turning everything off for the hour and then turning it back on actually in most cases uses up more power than leaving it on for the hour! It takes power to start up your TV, Lights etc etc, which burns more than it uses by leaving it turned on.

Personally during Earth Hour I will be going out of my way to make sure every single appliance and light in my apartment is SWITCHED ON!

What’s even more annoying is that the same Media that promote the whole “Earth Hour” are the same media that come Christmas time hold competitions for houses with the most lights and decorations!

What idiot thought of this “Earth Hour”, Why am I not surprised it was started in Australia!

Mikey

Humans aren't the cause of global warming, but we are contributing to it. The Sun is the cause, every planet in our solar system is warming. Think about this, what is the leading source for heat in our solar system, the Sun, and it is getting brighter every day.

[edit on 27-3-2008 by xnibirux]