Earth Hour. Does anyone realize how stupid it is??

Does anyone realize how stupid this is?? There's 8760 hours in one year, only ONE hour to stop using electricity per year. Worse, the average power cut during that one hour is only 10%(not everyone participates)

Another thing.. So okay, we turn off lights and stuff for one hour and turn them all back one nearly simultaneously, that strains the grid and if I'm not mistaken, will contribute to some power loss, a bit more maintenance that you end up saving nothing, if not, wasting more!

I think it should be renamed to 'Earth Torture Break Hour' or simply 'Stupidity Hour'

Yeah, it's more symbolism than a help. That's what I've been thinking as well.

Plus when people stop using electricity for that hour, who's to say that the companies that burn coal to produce electricity will stop as well?

It's also wise to keep in mind the massive factories and corperations that will continue to use power throughout this event and throughout the entire world. A few people flipping a light switch is a very tiny drop in the bucket to say the least.

AN elderly Cairns woman is believed to be the first victim of an Earth Hour vigilante after a mystery door-knocker pulled the plug on her lights just after the global power-saving hour started.

www.cairns.com.au...

so we have an 81 year old pensioner ready for bed and there was a knock on the door, on her way to answer it someone cut her breaker and switched the power off to her house.

the woman lived through a depression and even saves the water from her shower to water her garden.

I am so glad I turned on extra lights so as people sitting in the dark could see the light that glabal warming is a scam.

I think that I live in a cave. I didn't even know that there was such a thing as "Earth Hour" until I started to read these post earth hour threads. Whoops....

It's not so much about 'saving' electricity. It's not so much just turning off lights - I personally turned off everything and staggered what I put back on over the night - it's about the mindset and what it symbolises.

We're too reliant on the energy sources we use. We're too wasteful with those energy sources. A lot of what we do is unnecessary. Where I live, it's rare I actually see a night sky* because of light pollution for instance.

That brief hour is useful to just prove to ourselves that our current way of live is not always necessary and we can do without a lot of it but also to reflect on how these lifestyles are messing up the planet.

It's not about whether climate change is man-made or not; that's pretty irrelevant. The climate is changing and we need to learn to ride those changes, whether it means learning to cut back or look for alternatives to what we're using or how we use what we're actually currently using in the first place.


*although, ironically last night there was a power cut that turned off a lot of street lighting where I live which allowed me to see the sky more clearly than I have done for years.

it is a bit silly, but what are you going to do?

the idea might be that people realise that they don't actually need the 52 light bulbs they have burning when they go without them for an hour.

It's not really a "stupid" idea. It's not really about how much energy is being saved...it's more symbolic than anything else.

Is global warming a crock? Of course it is.

Did Earth Hour save a dramatic amount of energy? Of course it didn't.

It's more about getting people to realize that they really DON'T need every light in the house on all day. You really don't need the TV and the computer and anything else on all the time.

I think it's a cool way to generate awareness. Genius really. People love an interactive event.

It should have been staggered across the day- if you live in an apartment, turn your lights off on this hour, or if your last name starts with a J turn your lights out on that hour.

I struggle to keep as many lights off as possible in the house, but my sister is very forgetful and my mom's just a bitch who'll do anything I tell her not to do.

reply to post by ahnggk


OP - It’s nothing to do with saving energy in that instant it’s about making people aware simple as that – Good to see you are now aware.

Originally posted by majestictwo
reply to post by ahnggk

 

OP - It’s nothing to do with saving energy in that instant it’s about making people aware simple as that – Good to see you are now aware.

Most people I've seen believe that they're helping save the planet, when the truth is not and they squander use of energy for the rest of the year. It doesn't change them a bit, that's why I think the idea i stupid.

It was a grand gesture to help make people more aware and that is all.

BUT if we replaced all public lighting with LCD bulbs and made all street lights project downward we would save huge amounts of energy and go a long way towards reducing light pollution.

reply to post by grover



Yes it would go a long ways. A project like that would also create jobs and be an actual step forward.... instead we seem to prefer to run in circles with useless gestures like Earth Hour.

No offense to those that support it but I think the time of empty gestures has passed.

[edit on 30-3-2009 by Karlhungis]

Yep we know it is total bull The earth could take 10 times more cars, and we will still be here. They get away with this bull because of peer pressure, and peoples need to belong with the crowd.

If people turn all the lights back on again afterwards then it's a complete waste of time other than to demonstrate how utterly stupid homo sapiens really are!

If it wakes people up into realising just how much electricity they waste - and thus how much money they waste every single day - then it has a purpose. But I guess most people are so rich they don't care about burning money? Or else they'd be using much less electricity to start with.

Originally posted by grover
It was a grand gesture to help make people more aware and that is all.

BUT if we replaced all public lighting with LCD bulbs and made all street lights project downward we would save huge amounts of energy and go a long way towards reducing light pollution.

I'm not convinced that we need the amount of lighting in streets that we have anyway. I don't know where people have got this idea that streets are meant to look like fun-fairs and amusement parks.

A few years ago there was a study on light pollution which carried some information about lighting and street crime. Obviously, a darker street can potentially facilitate crime, however after a certain point, it becomes no more of a deterrent or aid to crime nor helps reduce accidents. Apparently, a large percentage of streets in Britain have gone beyond that point, and with regard to crime and accidents, they're unnecessarily over-lit. I think a similar conclusion was drawn regarding motorways too.

Most nights I walk a couple of miles of road which is basically a dual carriage-way with very, very little foot traffic. However, on both sides are (closed) for the evening retail parks where every shop has massive illuminated signing both on the store and on illuminated displays along the actual roadside too. Why? No one can shop at that time!

Originally posted by Essan
But I guess most people are so rich they don't care about burning money? Or else they'd be using much less electricity to start with.

I'm not sure how true this is. I think it's become habitual or a 'lifestyle' for many people. Particularly people who didn't live through either the war and the subsequent period of austerity or people who didn't live through the 1970s with the blackouts &c.

Also, there's a couple of (younger) generations around now that have grown-up in a very technologically-dependant culture where everything comes with a plug or a socket for a charger or battery pack.

the OP is the stupid one....


do you realize is not about saving energy...?

I don't think it's stupid at all. It was to raise awareness and spread education.

Another thing that could be mentioned is why these famous buildings need to be lit all night long?

As mentioned, perhaps it made people consider whether they need the lights on in another room, maybe it made people consider their own power use?

Whether you believe in global warming or not, we abuse this planet and we are a wasteful species. We're arrogant and it needs to change.

I don't care about global warming specifically, there are arguments to suggest it is a natural cycle and those opposing arguments too. But not one person can deny that we are damaging OUR environment. We ARE polluting our water, we ARE poisoning our air and we ARE making this planet less able to support Human life.

The world will continue without us one day, everything we are doing is only making it worse for us and other species.

Originally posted by ahnggk

Originally posted by majestictwo
reply to post by ahnggk

 

OP - It’s nothing to do with saving energy in that instant it’s about making people aware simple as that – Good to see you are now aware.

Most people I've seen believe that they're helping save the planet, when the truth is not and they squander use of energy for the rest of the year. It doesn't change them a bit, that's why I think the idea i stupid.

Fair comment you have a point.

Mind you in my neck of the woods the media have been promoting it as an awareness thing I guess it’s because earth day originated here. I don’t see it stopping so get your media to explain to their listeners

MJ2