Another voice of reason, on this “Earth Hour” nonsense. I’m thinking we’ll turn on all the lights in the apartment, turn on the oven, it’s electric, and also cook some dinner on the stove top. Both of the computers will be on, and I’m sure we can find an NCAA tournament game on the HDTV to watch.
Carbon Sense Coalition: 'Earth Hour' Should be Renamed 'Dark Hour': ”
As previously reported by NewsBusters, there’s an international climate change awareness promotion going on today called Earth Hour, and websearch giant Google is not only participating in it, but advocating its goals.
Presenting the other side of this argument is an organization called The Carbon Sense Coalition.
It wants ‘to restore balance and reason to the carbon debate, and to explain and defend the key role of carbon in production of most of our energy for heat, light, and transportation, and all of our food.’
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Earth Hour, Carbon Sense Coalition
Filed under: Colorado, Denver, Earth Hour
I just want to say that this earth hour stuff is all bull.
Getting everyone to turn stuff off for one hour isn’t going to help the earth that much, in fact it may even cause MORE DAMAGE !!
For example: Imagine an average family of 4 and their usual night. Perhaps this family walks to the local convenience store and rents a video to watch together every Sat night. They use a highly efficient microwave to nuke some leftovers and plop down in front of the TV for two hours with no other lights on because you can see the movie better that way.
This week, this hypothetical family decides to “do the earth hour thing” with a few neighbors. They drive to the grocery store and purchase alot of meat and prepared foods like sweets/deserts, potato salad, and chips. They burn who knows how much propane to cook the factory-farmed meat they eat off paper or even Styrofoam plates. They use candles made from petroleum, or lamps powered by batteries or oil to light the party… And whatever doesn’t get eaten, will wind up in big plastic garbage bags to be taken to the dump.
All this earth hour stuff is just another way for the average man to feel like he’s doing something good while making a mess.
Actively choosing to turn down your thermostat a few degrees in the winter and up a few in the summer would save MUCH more energy than turning off all your electrical stuff for an hour each year.
Actively choosing to REDUCE and REUSE would mean that the little that you do need to RECYCLE can be done in a cost effective manor.
Actively choosing to compost your food scraps would not only save you money on fertilizer for your lawn each year, but would return the nutrients to the earth where they belong instead of trapping them in plastic bags buried under other garbage in a dump.
Choose wisely in your day to day actions, and you’ll do so much more for the world than any STUNT like “Earth Hour”.
I think it’s a great idea because if nothing else it RAISES AWARENESS about the sorts of things we can do to reduce the damage that we are inflicting on our home, planet Earth (that’s for those of us who feel a desire to do more than the Three R’s–yes, they’re important, too, Shannon
).
Yeah, some people are probably going to miss the point and go out and buy a whole bunch of stuff, but think about it: a whole city (like Toronto or Vancouver) going dark for an hour? That would save A LOT on the energy bill (not to mention reducing CO2 levels)–even if they turn the lights back on once the sixty minutes are up (we’re talking a whole city here–and a big one).
EH doesn’t make one bit of difference? HA!
They’re not going to turn off all the lights. They’re going to turn off “all non-essential lights”. All I have to say to that is, if they aren’t essential, why are they on?
And besides, raising awareness doesn’t really do anything but pump up the egos of the awareness raisers. Everybody in north america knows they should use less power.
I’m going to turn on every light I can find, plus both televisions, all the computers, both Bose radios, and the Christmas lights I’ve still not taken down. Then, I’m gonna’ go out and sit in the car, run the engine. and listen to Fox News on Sirius satellite radio for the full Earth Hour. This event is just public masturbation by the relatively wealthy to make themselves feel better. People should and will make decisions all the time about what’s best for them financially … and if they decide they want all the lights on 24/7 ’cause it makes them feel “happy” then I’m all for that. Conversely, if they want to live in a dark cave, great … move in with the bears and snakes and do that. What’s irritating as hell is a bunch of people telling us all the time what we have to do to “save” the planet. There’s no science or reason to this, just a bunch of ideologs wanting to do something, anything to make them feel better.
“,,,just another way for the average man to feel like he’s doing something good while making a mess.”
Shannon’s comment made me laugh, because it’s true about many of the symbolic gestures activists engage in, which are often just attention-grabbing stunts without much practical value. If turning off the lights is good for the globe, why don’t they try it for a whole evening, rather than just one hour? Answer: Because THAT would be inconvenient.