Earth Hour has come and gone in California (8:30 to 9:30 PM PDT) for 2010 without so much as a blip. In fact the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) power usage graph looks much like last year when there was also no discernible difference.
Using the graph provided by CAISO, here’s what Earth Hour 2010 looked like in California, can you spot where everybody turned off their lights?
FYI CAISO says on the graph page that: Sudden spikes in resource curve graph may indicate false data briefly reported by system
Here’s what Earth Hour in California looked like in 2009:
Note the the drop in power you see just prior to Earth Hour is normal. As proof, have a look at the Sunday after Earth Hour from last year:
Some said last year that Earth Hour made a difference. Well Treehugger doesn’t know how to read the graph, and assumes the drop they saw was not business as usual. See that little blip around 0700 on all three graphs? That’s the signature of streetlights all around California automatically shutting off because the photocells get enough light:
From the NOAA sunrise/sunset calculator, San Francisco sunrise on March 27th is: 7:02AM PDT. In Southern California, Los Angeles has a sunrise time of 6:47AM, which is why the “streetlights off” power drop is gradual for about 30 minutes starting before 0700 on the graphs.
If there was a big effect from Earth Hour, you’d see a step event like the street lights at 7AM as everybody turned off their home lights in California at 8:30PM (2030). Plus, the greens don’t seem to realize that no power plants get switched off, so there’s really no CO2 savings. The power plants are run based on demand forecast. Short term spikes from well intentioned stunts really don’t make a blip of difference to CO2 emissions.
Earth Hour is a failure in California and according to Richard North at the EU Referendum, a failure in Britain too.
Feel free to post any power use graphs from other parts of the world in comments.
From commenter Bahumbug in the previous thread:
Here is a wonderful short article by Ross McKitrick regards Earth Hour via Donna Laframboise at nofrakkingconsensus
“The whole mentality around Earth Hour demonizes electricity. I cannot do that, instead I celebrate it and all that it has provided for humanity…. It invites people to become sanctimonious do-gooders by turning off trivial appliances for a trivial amount of time, in service of some ill-understood abstract concept of “the Earth,” all the while hypocritically retaining the real benefits of electricity.
…….
I don’t want to go back to nature. Haiti just went back to nature. For humans, living in “Nature” meant a short life span marked by violence, disease and ignorance. People who work to end poverty and disease are fighting against nature. I hope they leave their lights on.
……
…through the use of pollution control technology and advanced engineering, our air quality has dramatically improved since the 1960s despite the expansion of industry and the power supply. If, after all this, we are going to take the view that the remaining air emissions outweigh all the benefits of electricity, and that we ought to be shamed into sitting in darkness for an hour, like naughty children who have been caught doing something bad, then we are setting up unspoiled nature as an absolute, transcendent ideal that obliterates all other ethical and humane obligations. No thanks. I like visiting nature but I don’t want to live there, and I refuse to accept the idea that civilization is something to be ashamed of.
Ross McKitrick
Full article in pdf (single page) here
WWF would be better off preaching year round energy conservation than publicity stunts, but unfortunately publicity stunts are what wow the gullible and fill the till.
Mark (09:54:21) : “Anthony, however, is a quitter. He quit the school board. He quit the task force. Rather than engage his neighbors, he hides in a cyber world and throws stones at the people who are doing actual work. I have to admit he is pretty good at watching paint dry on Stevenson stations.”
If you don’t think that disseminating the truth is not “work”, then it is YOU who have your head in the Cali sand, mister.
WUWT and Surfacestations are a LOT of “work”….and last time I checked much of the work on both of them is ALL VOLUNTEER.
He has done more work than I would venture to guess you will ever do…and you are just unhappy about that fact. Sounds like just bitterness and jealousy on your part. You can’t get a platform like he has established, so your throw ad hominem spears.
Pretty pathetic.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
Mark (09:54:21) :
…..due to my progressively worsening hearing loss….
I know a good doctor that uses vitamins, herbs, minerals, etc. for such and has some good success. Everything I’ve used of his has worked so far. If you want I can tell you about him. Might be worth a shot.
REPLY: Thanks for the thought, but my hearing loss is sensory-neural. My cochlear nerve endings are damaged. The only hope might be some stem cell regeneration, but that is way off in the future. – Anthony
April E. Coggins (09:28:27) :
Since Earth Hour is only symbolic anyway, wouldn’t it be easier if they just shut their eyes for an hour?
To me they have their eyes shut all of the time, symbolically. If they would merely open their eyes for an hour then we might make some real progress.
Output and projections for yesterday, today and tomorrow for Ontario:
http://www.ieso.ca/imoweb/siteShared/demand_price.asp?sid=ic#price
Of course the media are rattling on about how it’s a 4% drop during earth hour here in Ontario, but I’m trying to see where it was outside the normalized curve.
http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100328/earth_hour_ont_100328/20100328?hub=Toronto
Mark (09:54:21) :
You might be in a bad mood because Earth Hour isn’t having a real impact on everyday people. Because it seems that if Earth Hour went well in California last night you’d be in a very good mood this morning, optimistic about the future of ‘climate change’, and not caring one bit about what the ‘skeptics’ are doing. But you are in a cross way today. You’re here, spending your time at a ‘skeptics’ blog, posting rude comments. You might be telegraphing your pessimism over the future of ‘climate change’.
BTW, I don’t think the community needs as much input from environmental activism as you think it does. On the other hand, California sure could use minimal regulations and taxes on businesses so that businesses stop leaving. Maybe some of the businesses that have left would come back if they saw California had stopped being antagonistic toward them. I would hope you put doing something about that on your activism calendar and drop this harmful global warming program. Life is precarious enough without all the raising of taxes and regulation for something that isn’t even happening. If you hadn’t noticed California is crippled because of ‘political correctness’ which ‘climate change’ is part of.
REPLY: Thanks for the thought, but my hearing loss is sensory-neural. My cochlear nerve endings are damaged. The only hope might be some stem cell regeneration, but that is way off in the future. – Anthony
Ok.
On the off chance I will call him and maybe he will have something to say about it. But he may also say what you are. I hope you don’t mind that.
absolutely charming the humor within these posts.
as a perfect example I quote
April E. Coggins (09:28:27) :
Since Earth Hour is only symbolic anyway, wouldn’t it be easier if they just shut their eyes for an hour?
thank you all.
You people have it all wrong. We turned everything off and huddled in the cold and dark. We did it for practice. Because if the Loonies In Charge get their way, we will all be huddling in the cold and dark all the time.
PS to Prof Mark. You and your government-paid academic buddies do “actual work”? Hahahahahaha. Thanks for the laugh.
Since Mark doesn’t like to engage factual discussion, I decided I’d try a calculation experiment.
News item from March 7th: Green Party in California trying to stem shrinking numbers
http://www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_14631028?nclick_check=1
They say there are 111,000 Green party members in California.
Ok let’s run some numbers:
If in the evening at 8:30 PM an Green party member turned off all their power usage what would we get?
This is just a rough estimate, your mileage may vary.
Mac computer and monitor: (PC’s are not PC to greens)- 150 watts, no more Daily Kos
Lights: let’s say 5 lights @ur momisugly 60 watts each – 300 watts (unless they are CFL, then we are talking about 100 watts total)
Radio: 35 watts (no more NPR)
TV: not sure if greens own any.
So let’s say, computer, CFL bulbs and radio, for greens total: 285 watts, lets round up to 300 watts in case we missed something.
300 watts x 111,000 greens in CA = 33300000 watts or 33.3 megawatts
Even if they got every registered Green party member in the state to do it, hardly a blip, and maybe not visible in the normal downturn in electric usage that occurs at that time.
From Anthony in Amino Acids in Meteorites (10:13:04) :
REPLY: Thanks for the thought, but my hearing loss is sensory-neural. My cochlear nerve endings are damaged. The only hope might be some stem cell regeneration, but that is way off in the future. – Anthony
Both you and Rush Limbaugh- TV/radio careers using earpieces and headsets, both with severe hearing loss. You said before you suspect yours was from a medical-type interaction, it’s a small sample size… except when you consider how many are getting permanent loss from loud music. They still have out the iPod earbud warnings?
He went with a cochlear implant, sometimes you see him pictured with the transmitter part stuck behind his ear to the implanted magnet. As I understand it, the receiver feeds the signal right to the audio nerve, thus the damage to your endings shouldn’t matter. I’ve seen other people on TV with them, obviously with later-in-life hearing loss.
Of course it’s not as good as normal hearing, and there may be a vanity issue if you object to looking Borg-ish, but it’s still worth investigating.
REPLY: I’m not at the point yet where I need a cochlear implant, I still have about 20% of hearing left mostly low frequency, compensated with some of the best hearing aids on the planet that have computer real-time processing built in (Germanium IC’s no less! due to 1.5 volt power source, silicon’s 0.7 volt diode loss makes it impractical). Cochlear implant right now would be worse than I have. – Anthony
As for the reason behind my tone; WUWT shows up as a feed on our daily blog, Norcal Blogs, but Anthony does not participate. So, while he is well versed in the IPCC, he is clueless on CHICO and his neighbors, hence, my disgust.
WUWT started as a scientific analysis of weather stations but it has become an entertainment blog with a bunch of climatic ditto-heads.
Anthony is invited to every public event we hold. He chooses not to speak in to people face to face, but rather hide here is safe company. The few times we have spoken together in public, he is as silent as a rock
I know Anthony, and Anthony knows me. The rest of you, like Mike D. are just whistling in the dark.
REPLY: Mark, I have not seen a single invitation from you or anyone else in the past two years. If there was some and somehow I’ve missed them, please point them out to me, send me a link to one, or show an email where I was invited.
I was invited once to CSUC about 5 years ago and you sat next to me, I ran a 10 minute presentation that even you liked. I’ve done two presentations at “this way to sustainability” by invitation, which were about 15 minutes long each, which you also witnessed. Hardly “silent as a rock” as you say.
But I’m not invited to speak at CSUC anymore, why is that Mark?
Also, I think you misunderstand the blog feed at Norcal Blogs. The ER granted me a move to this new WordPress platform but they retained the RSS link. Plus, if you look you’ll see I’ve made recent comments on Commission Impossible, another favorite blog of yours.
Be disgusted if you wish, but the facts counteract your basis. Also, I have papers coming out regarding the research. You’ll see it on the blog but I’ll shoot you copies when they are ready also.
So far all you’ve made are social allegations, with nothing factual to back anything up. At least I’ve used hard numbers. Looking forward to an invitation to speak at “This way to sustainability” next time – Anthony
P.S. Ask Ken Grossman about my community participation at the last Rotary Club meeting this year which he spoke about sustainability for his brewery. Ask him if I treated him with respect in my question, or if I treated him boorishly as you have me. – A
finn (09:09:14) :
I believe I already answered your motorcycle accident hypothesis.
Your claim rests on the assumption that lights are an idiot-proof safety device.
They can assist in the two-way street of precaution, but they cannot replace it.
The motorist is responsible for the safe conduct of thier vehicle at all times.
The pedestrian is responsible to look both ways before crossing the road.
If the accident is a direct result of Earth Hour lights being out, it also a result of one or both parties not acting in accordance with conditions that changed.
Most street lights that I know of are hardwired. Either the entire section of a power grid is out along with the street lights, or the entire section is on.
Pedestrian are killed every day crossing streets.
Some are killed in crosswalks even when the light says it’s safe to cross.
Why didn’t the crosswalk save the pedestrians life?
Because white paint cannot stop a pedestrian from stepping out in front of a moving vehicle, nor can it stop a speeding vehicle driven by someone who is not paying attention to the light that just turned red.
Now, back to your Earth Hour death claim.
Which party was not paying attention to the changed conditions and/or circumstances on that fateful moment?
Safety is not found in things. It’s a practice that requires participation.
Anthony,
You stopped coming to task force meeting, so you were dropped. You stopped applying to speak at the sustainability conference, so you are no longer on the program. You make presentations but you have nothing to say in Q&A. You stopped engaging. I am not sure why, maybe it was your hearing loss, or maybe you did not like what you were hearing. Either way, you are no longer an active citizen in Chico, but I still have to see your pandering ridicule on Norcal Blogs.
Fact: If you were the least bit involved in the town where you live, you would have known that Earth Hour efforts in Chico were about energy awareness, not energy savings.
I am Mark Stemen and I approve of this message.
Ps. Your comments on CI are limited to lame humor (not commentary), not that my similar lame attempts at humor are any better.
REPLY: Mark, what you don’t understand (and neither did Schwab) was that because the meetings were scheduled when they were, in the middle of the work day, I had to make a choice between running my business and volunteering at a place where people were hostile to my ideas. Lon Glazner, another small business owner, had to make the same choice. I don’t see you dissing him. Schwab even got bent out of shape once when I wanted to pass out a flyer on thermal ground sinks. Baffling.
If the sustainability task force was really interested in input from the business community like myself, they’d have voted for the evening hours so that small business owners like myself and Lon were able to attend more often. That got voted down, mainly due to the large makeup of the CSUC sphere of influence that makes up the committee. If you and Schwab really valued my input, you’d have found a way to help me work through it. As it was, my missing a few meetings was used as a convenient excuse to boot me off at the first available opportunity. I wasn’t even given a warning, just “boom, you’re off the task force”. Such tact.
Mostly, I think you and Schwab just want people that say “yes” and don’t offer challenging ideas or raise issues about bad ones, like the local gasoline tax that was proposed.
In the previous times I have spoken at “This way to sustainability” both were by invitation. Once for the solar system I did on my home, once for the solar system I did for CUSD. I’ve never received another invitation since.
I’m not sure what you are referring to about Q&A, I took questions both times. Did I not take enough?
If you are saying that I’m not invited to the “this way to sustainability” anymore, because now the procedure has switched to a “call for presentations”, then that’s fine too. Please make sure you let me know and I’ll submit one for the next one. The topic will be “LED lighting retrofitting – easy upgrade to efficiency”. I’m counting on you to demonstrate that you aren’t just making lip service here. Would there be a reason to deny such a presentation? We’ll see.
As for commentary, you made no qualifications on the “quality” of participation, you simply said I was in hiding and didn’t participate. Prior to this morning, I could say the very same about you, you haven’t participated in online discourse here.
Here’s another example of my “non active citizen non-community participation” you may have missed. The new CSUC sponsored Gateway Science Museum has a new digital weather station (from my sales stock, real money there), and a new LCD wall display unit also donated by me will be installed soon to display weather info to visitors. Ask your buddy Jim Houpis or Rachel Teasdale if that is true or not. Did you donate anything?
So you really should retract claims that I’m not involved in the community and that I’m “hiding”. Such claims really should not be coming from a Professor at Chico State University, especially when he has no evidence to back it up and I’ve presented evidence otherwise. Why not simply admit you are peeved and don’t like me, rather than spin yarns to make me look bad? It really is unbecoming of a university professional.
It is telling when you drop any pretense of discussing the Earth Hour impact or the data that I’ve presented, and focus exclusively on trying to attack my character.- Anthony
When my wife informed me that the news had just announced a reminder to people to turn off power for an hour (something to do with global warming) she says, my first reaction was “they can go and #$%& themselves.” In retrospect, I had no thought of “saving” anything, nor did I even consider the practical uselessness of the gesture, but was reacting purely in defiance to what has now become a symbol of things untrustworthy (to put it mildly). I believe that they have failed the people so badly with a host of alarmism, inaccurate reports and plain BS that even if they stood on the street corner handing out Dollar bills, I wouldn’t want any – or at least would be mighty suspicious. It’s too bad they have cocked it up so, because there is probably a lot of good in there somewhere.
Its interesting that available resources are so dramatically different 36,000 vs 29,000 Megawatts. Was it that much hotter this time last year or did the power companies choose to observe Earth Hour?
That’s mostly true because the heavy industry went somewhere else. Now those places are heavily polluted. But, since they’re mostly third world countries, no one really cares.
Martin, apparently you’re unaware that the greenies decidedly do NOT want clean, cheap energy. They’ve stated this many times. I think it was the infamous Paul Ehrlich who said such a thing would be like giving a child a machinegun.
Mark (09:54:21) :
Rocky Road,
You are obviously not from California. The ivory was looted from the educational towers here long ago.
Good thing, too.
PETA would be livid if it were still there.
finn (06:41:11) :
PResumably the motorcycle had a headlight. So why would streetlights have made a difference?
If there’s such a risk, then we need to re-enact prohibition.
REPLY: Mark, I have not seen a single invitation from you or anyone else in the past two years…Be disgusted if you wish, but the facts counteract your basis. A
…”biases” mebbe?
…of course, “baseless charges” works, too.
[snip – over the top]
Prof. Mark —-the sound of exploding watermelons.
Oops. My first ‘over the top’ comment. Must have been caused by that hour of darkness… or perhaps the heat that is predicted to make everyone more angry!
Mark,
In my experience, once someone begins resorting to ill-informed personal character assassinations, it is a clear indication that they have lost the debate. Kudos to Anthony for being an outstanding active member of his community in Chico, and here on WUWT.