UPDATE: Somebody in Toronto is going to really aggravate the greens, see below.
Or more importantly, what will the United Nations do? The American Thinker points out the hypocrisy of the UN with the photo below. Does anyone live in NYC who can snap a photo tomorrow night to see if they follow “Earth Hour?
It is now midnight GMT March 26th, (5PM EST, March 25th in USA) Earth Hour is Saturday, and still is coming up at the time of this writing at 8:30-9:30PM Saturday March 26th in the USA time zones: Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, Alaska, and Hawaii. It will of course happen in that 8:30-9:30PM local time in each timezone on Earth.
I’m interested in finding out what your plans are. What will or did you do? The poll is for entertainment purposes only, and is not scientific.
Choose your answer below:
Also, for a perspective that I embrace, I offer again Dr. Ross McKitrick’s essay on Earth Hour:
Earth Hour: a dissent
UPDATE: This just in from the Toronto Sun
“We will not be in the dark,” journalist and conservative commentator David Menzies said Thursday.
Instead, what you will find is a giant beacon in the sky emanating from his Richmond Hill street between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m.
“While everybody else has their lights off I will have every light in my house on,” said Menzies, as he prepared for his second installment in mocking the “phony” Earth Hour movement.
He’s also gone a step further.
“I have rented four rotating Hollywood movie lights which will light up the sky for miles,” he said.
Right now it is snowing in Wallowa County. I plan on stoking the wood stove through the night and all day tomorrow. I’m a wee little lass and don’t care much for cold bums.
Crystal Cathedral in more ways than one! Look at that big Cross on the building, COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT!
Dang Crusaders, no wonder they’re goin’ after Libya!
Anthony, you’re being far too hard on the UN. Surely they leave the lights on all day because they are working so hard on our behalf. (Aren’t they?)
Actually tonight I ran out of firewood because the winter has been unusually cold, and since it’s still cold here in Philly (mid 20sF at night) I’ve resorted to burning some scrap lumber and old shingles from the home addition project tonight. Before you Greenies get all excited, they are cedar shingles. Still carbon neutral. But if this cold continues I’m going to have to resort to the waste oil heater in the barn.
I think the case with the UN building is that the lights may be on but no one is home.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/world-urged-to-mark-earth-hour/story-fn3dxity-1226028493308
I have my refurbished pool lights ready for action.
Anthony, based on previous EH campaigns of the WWF, the Philippines was always no. 1 in terms of estimated participants; could mean we have the most number of climate alarmists around the world? I criticized the EH, added Ross McKitrick’s article, then sent my paper to the top 2 EH officials of WWF here in Manila. As usual, after seeing my harsh critique of their program, their answer is standard: silence of the lamb. Here it is, http://funwithgovernment.blogspot.com/2011/03/earth-hour-lunacy-part-2.html
“There was Earth Hour tonight?”
lol, yeh, I know there’s one every year, but I didn’t know it was tonight until I read the post! I thought it coincided with that earthday birthday thingy. I think in honor of earth hour, Imma have some ethanol and use it for its intended purposes! Yea! Earth hour!
You might want to fix the comment about the post time. Midnight GMT is equivalent to 5 pm PDT. [Or 7 pm EST, although few are on EST at the moment.]
I will be helping to generate 1.850 gw-hr of emission free energy during that hour.
Actually, that will be 1.850 gw-hr of emission free electricity. It will require 5.60 gw-hr of energy to be liberated from a few grams of U-235, 238 and various Pu isotopes. God help us if we are hit by a 14 meter tsunami at this location 100 km inland from the Gulf of Mexico.
This year I plan to rent one of those Grand Opening/Movie Premier gasoline powered quadruple rotating spotlights and put it in front of my home. It will project four gloriously intense beacons of fossil fuel powered rationality into the dark night sky.
Next to it I will place a big sign that reads,
“I refuse to sit in the dark in the name of a sanctimonious, irrational and failed theory.”
Turn off the radio and TV, as always do. And search for sensible info only on the Internet.
And if someone tells me the tons of CO2 he has saved I will remind him that those tons of CO2 could have been used by plants to make tons of sugar.
Remember. 1 Kg of Sugar has been made with over 900 g of CO2.
I’m going to celebrate a day I have started myself: Electricity Day. It means I’m going to leave all lights on and think of all the wonderful things our technological revolution has brought us.
You americans have a fondness for celebrating everything on certain days. Why not hijack this day for the sake of electricity?
Somebody unplug the life support for Global Warming!
Celebrating Human Achivement Hour: http://cei.org/hah2011
And viewing: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/03/27/earth-hour-in-north-korea-a-stunning-success/#more-17803
😉
Earth hour? I didn’t miss it yet? Phew. Note to self – crank it up, baby! Most expensive hour on my monthly bill.
Seriously, we should counter this ridiculous, self-flagellating guilt trip with an hour of celebration of how fortunate we are to enjoy the comfort and safety of modern technology, and remind the proponents of this act of contrition how their ideology and policies do their best to keep a large portion of the world’s population in perpetual poverty.
I loved that Ross McKitrick post from a week or so back. Easily the best, most concise critique of Earth Hour I’ve ever read.
I chose option 1 as that was the closest to what I will actually do.
Since earth hour is an entirely cosmetic occurrence I will not switch on every electrical appliance, just those that people can see from outside.
While Earth Hour is in progress I will be on a CO2 generating Business class flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne.
I’ll have an extra glass of CO2 laden champange to celebrate the technical marvel of modern air travel that allows us to travel to any reasonable spot on this globe in approx not more than 24 hours.
Long live human innovation and courage to live in the face of the human hating greens.
Earth Hour
A cold, dark and starry starry night
A spark
A stick
Meet
United in conflagration
Providing
Light – to my eyes
Warmth – to my body
Carbon dioxide and water – to the atmosphere
Extinguished
by the laws of nature
The components
scattered to the four winds
absorbed by the earth
Driven
by the Sun
A new stick
Another spark
Meet.
I voted “ignore”.
Without this reminder, I would vote “Earth hour?”
Can’t afford to “Turn ON every possible light and electrical appliance I own…”,
my spite will be shown by indifference.
If we could get everyone in the U.S. to turn all their power off for just 2 minutes at the same exact time we could crash the grid.
Then we’d show us!!
“James Sexton says:
March 25, 2011 at 5:31 pm
“There was Earth Hour tonight?”
lol, yeh, I know there’s one every year, but I didn’t know it was tonight until I read the post! I thought it coincided with that earthday birthday thingy. I think in honor of earth hour, Imma have some ethanol and use it for its intended purposes! Yea! Earth hour!”
DITO. But I was working on my Tax obligation.
Nonoy Oplas says:
March 25, 2011 at 5:29 pm
Kamusta, pinoy. Ahhh… before you get too excited… hindi akong mabuting mag salitat ng inyong wika!
Still, I’m a little surprised that you sound surprised about Philippine enthusiasm for Earth Day. The Filipino character is marked by passion and enthusiasm – a phlegmatic Filipino is one that has been dead and buried for about a year… he finally decided that it made no difference which cock won the fight or who beat who.
I’m turning on all the lights, cranking up the heaters, and burning all my old newspapers in the fireplace. Drill, baby Drill!! Still feels like an Ice Age up here in New Hampshire. Foot of snow on the ground and below freezing most of the day and all night long, and *this is spring time*….
I’ll be celebrating Human Achievement hour by turning on every electrical thing I have.
I wish I could take credit for th following phrase, but I cannot. I will celebrate “Human Achievement Hour” to coincide with the Earth Hour silliness. I will enjoy the fruits of human achievement that provides light that chases back the dark; that provides reliable and affordable cooling or heat (it’s still rather cool here in Marina del Rey, California) to ward off the chill; that provides abundant and affordable fuel to power many modes of transportation and industrial activities; that provides reliable and still affordable electricity to power the myriad of devices that make life much easier, less drudgery, and more meaningful. I’ll be listening to Beatles songs played from digital files through an iPhone and an incredible speaker system.
I invite all others who are able, to join me in celebrating Human Achievement Hour.
My sympathies, though, to those in parts of the world who have yet to benefit from the positives of electric power – abundant, reliable, and affordable. Please trust me that we are working on bringing that electricity to you.
This is a disaster. I’ve just got back from the pub and found that I’ve missed Earth Hour. If I had been better informed I could have left all the lights on before I went out.
I will try to make up tomorrow (later today) by emitting extra methane.
Earth Hour? WTF is that?
For earth hour I will do exactly what I do most nights. Watch TV with my one 13w CFL on in my living room and no other lights on. Since it comes in the early spring and I live in Montana, where it is still somewhat cold, my heater will be on. Since I use a computer pretty much constantly, my computer will be on (lousy thermostat, so the lowest I can get it is about 70F). If earth hour was in the middle of the night, my house would be dark and if it was about one month later my heat would be off, which it is from late April or early May until the middle of October (and no, I don’t have A/C, although I do have a small swamp cooler).
I am *not* going to sit in the dark with everything off. That is stupid and not we people who advocate a change in our energy infrastructure are about. Earth Hour is stupid and gives ammo to those who want to portray “greenies” as people who want to go back to the 18th century. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Someone on the other thread suggested we call it. . .
The Hour of Power!
/Mr Lynn
Some interesting facts about the CO2 emission of the UN:
http://english.cctv.com/program/worldwidewatch/20091216/104320.shtml
In 2009, the UN announced that it “emits 1.7 million tons of carbon dioxide annually”. Half of this is generated during peacekeeping operations and 0.35 million tons are caused by UN staff flights. So 20% of the CO2 emission of the UN is caused by flying!
According to http://www2.icao.int/en/carbonoffset/Pages/default.aspx a round trip air flight New York – San Fransisco generates 710kg CO2 per passenger. So the UN flies an equivalent of 500,000 round trips NY – SF per year.
Wonder which other organizations flies that much.
I’ll be in NYC on business, but here are photos of what I did two years ago (and repeated last year): http://andstillipersist.com/2009/03/better-to-light-one-candle/. ..bruce..
Great poll. I only answered the way I did because, two yeats ago, I happened to be in the house of remote aquaintences when, at PM, or whenever, they turned off the lights and lit candles. My query was met with :”Earth Hour”.
This was, is and always will be a religious undertaking, because it was symbolic.
I wrote a facebook and blog post.
http://appliedimpossibilies.blogspot.com/2011/03/earth-hour-advocates-miss-grid-storage.html
You may also find this one interesting.
http://appliedimpossibilies.blogspot.com/2011/03/if-sea-level-rise-war-real-and-became.html
I believe a green grid is possible but not with the current generation of subsidised technologies blocking the next generation of technologies and no provision for grid storage to create carbon trading certificates, etc. I don’t think the government, left or right can speed up the trend towards energy efficiency and new solutions.
I don’t think turning on lights is a rational response. Responsible frugality with resources is sensible regardless of the debate.
Nonoy Oplas says:
March 25, 2011 at 5:29 pm
sorry, musta hit a wrong key….
I guess my point, Nonoy, was that the Philippine experience is really the experience of the US and the West. I haven’t done it myself, but if you look at the sponsors and the directors of the organizations sponsoring alramism in the P.I., you’ll likely find the same names that have dominated Philippine politics since Independence. An incestous bunch of Macapagals, Ramos’s, Cojuangcos, Laurels…. in 1986 Cory had the opportunity to fundamentally change the P.I. – the NPA were caught flat-footed by the People-Power Revolution and the people who put their lives on the line on EDSA were making a stand for change. They were sold out to the Philippine Hundred Families.
In the P.I., the sellout is a little more obvious than here in the U.S. … but we, too, have been sold out. Maybe, a new People Power Revolution in the P.I. can inspire the rest of the world….. remember, Tian-An Men Square was just one the revolts inspired by the P.I. People Power revolt…. though it ended badly….. Filipinos, perhaps, have a deeper sense of identification with people like themselves….. a perspective the marxists discuss under the umbrella if “false consciousness”
I’ll be playing a gig tomorrow nite…
Crap!!! I’ll be on acoustic guitar!!!! Oh, but I will be plugged into an amp. Time to turn it up to eleven!!!!! 🙂
Peter
“the UN announced that it emits 1.7 million tons of carbon dioxide
surely a good green reason to disband the UN
Bloody hell, I want human sacrifice at Earth Hour – just not mine. We MUST make amends for my Mercedes Benz.
It could be broadcast LIVE on CNN and the sacrifant be blessed and assured eternal reward in full pomp and splendor before their heart is ripped out of their living body. Hey, it’s been done before.
Take a look at North Korea on ANY night – they have extrapolated Earth Hour to its limit.
Is that the plan of these loonies, to make us all power-poor like the N Koreans?
I’ll be on a jumbo jet from Delhi to London. To help out I’ll turn on my reading light, watch a film and take deep breaths.
Whilst in India (on holiday) I have seen the smart leafy suburb where Pachauri and his chums luxuriate – and the broken shacks without electricity and without hope that millions of poor Indians cook their meagre meals on dried cow dung fires.
The aim of the spoiled brats and ecoloons who promote Earth Hour is to keep those people on the very edge of existance whilst they live a life of sybaritic hypocracy.
I cannot begin to express my contempt for them.
Actually, I’ll switch everything off in my house to simulate life with only wind and solar power instead of coal and nukes…
My commitment:
to not even care that it’s happening
I will be observing Earth Hour and turning off all my lights.
I was a bit concerned that I would then have to watch the Grand Prix Monster Drag Racing on television in the dark.
Luckily I came up with a solution!
I managed to secure a source of renewable bio-fuel (whale oil) from a whale which I had lured to its death by using another renewable energy source (wind farm) and so I will now have some whale oil candles to keep me going for an hour.
Business as usual.
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.
Albert Einstein
Read Farenheit451.
FYI the UN building is being renovated right now, so those are probably construction lights. Maybe.
http://www.un.org/cmp/uncmp/english/d.asp
wesley bruce says:
March 25, 2011 at 6:37 pm
“I don’t think turning on lights is a rational response. Responsible frugality with resources is sensible regardless of the debate.”
======
Don’t know about you, but “responsible frugality” reminders show up in the mail every month at my house, i.e. electric bills.
The debate is about the size of said bills, we were told they would “skyrocket”,
business hates waffling politicians.
Yet, we wait.
I am usually in bed by 8:30, but will stay up and do some work in my shop. The lights brighten half the neighbourhood. I’ll fire up the compressor as well and maybe do a bit of welding for effect.
Cheers!
More light, more heat, more mass production, these eco nitwits could do the famished and freezing Japanese survivors a favour and change places with them. They know its shallow symbolism,I will be lighting up the house and idling my F250 diesel as a celebration of technology hour.You would think Japan, NZ, Chile and the Christmas Tsunami would give these nature worshippers a clue. Nature is your warm cuddly friend, hug a polar bear.The eco fad hour is 8.30 -9.30 on 26th March here.
John Trigge is right. North Korea is on board with Earth Hour.
They are going to turn off the lights and sit in the dark for an hour or so, no flash light, match or torch to light the way to the toilet. Wait they are demonstrating conservation, anyone demonstrating can’t go to the toilet, it wouldn’t be fair.
I wonder how far back they are pretending to go, before or after the stone age.
I ordered a 6litre V8 last week (honest…no sarc).
It can run on 85% ethanol……so all’s well…..
I promise not to go over 2000rpm….would that be ok?.
Other than ignoring Earth Hour I plan to turn on everything and inform others to do the same.
“TURN ON ALL YOUR LIGHTS for Earth Hour! Honor ELECTRICITY! It lifts us out of the muck into civilization! Honor technology and our innovation that saves us from poverty and that gives us longer more enjoyable lives! Support the lifting up of Billions of Poor people around the world by expanding the development of energy sources! Do your part for humanity: demonize those that demonize electricity.”
Well, we generate all of our own electricity from solar energy. Therefore, we’ll probably just enjoy a nice Saturday evening at home watching a movie, with the lights on if the mood requires it. We may, however, idle our vehicles out in the driveway for the duration of earth hour. It’s cold. We may have to suddenly drive somewhere.
This year in OZ we really did not have summer but seven months of spring and ample rain, thus the country stayed green for the entire year. The gum trees grew and flowered for six months, sadly many got top heavy with wet feet and committed suicide.
The remains of these trees are in huge piles and although somewhat green and wet shall be sacrificed for earth hour. They will probably consume most of the twenty gallons of sump oil I have saved to get them burning and all the old tractor and truck tyres.
This will be my thank you to our plant friends for the O2 they supply.
I’ll run trading strategy simulations on all my cores. Like always.
I’m thinking about turning on all my lights just before I leave the house; then, do jack rabbit starts all over town.
It’s the thought that counts.
Except when overtaking or doing a burnout at the lights.
Frank K. says:
March 25, 2011 at 7:07 pm
“Actually, I’ll switch everything off in my house to simulate life with only wind and solar power instead of coal and nukes…”
Yeah, they should advertise Earth Hour as a necessary exercize to get us accustomed to our energy future…
All the lights on, tv and computer(s) Run my Chainsaw to cut up wood(we are a little south and a bit lower than Pamela Gray,) build a big roaring fire and keep warm and dry… and watch it snow-ahh NE Oregon in March…
When 8:30 PDST rolls around tomorrow I will loikely be palning Civilization V, or Dragon Age II and not even notice that it is Earth Hour.
Michael
The UN could save a lot of energy is they just run their lighting from all the “Hot air” coming out of all the politicians. 😉
I am going to the local hospital and ask them to turn everything off to help save the planet.
Had planned to ignore Earth Hour, but now think I will celebrate the glory of western civilization through the marvels of electricity (while I still have the incandescent bulbs to do so!)
Up here in the university town of Uppsala, Sweden (just north of Stockholm) I will of course be leaving all my lights on. As well, I still have christmas lights on my 3rd floor balcony. Their rainbow colours seen from afar can maybe help to put a bit of happiness into this anti-human hour.
I’m thinking of hanging an upside-down green glowing cross over the balcony as well, would this be too … provocative? 😉
Being a science teacher at the local international high school here, I have already sent my latest blog post (with WUWT links) to most teachers:
http://skepticalswedishscientists.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/earth-hour-of-power/
… so that they too can celebrate this years Hour of Power with me 🙂
Corpulent,
I love fast cars. My fave was my tricked out Miata (lowered, Konis, bigger roll bars, intake,race alignment, header, exhaust — unenjoyment kept me from the supercharger) top speed 130 (GPS on I80 in Nevada). That sucker rocked and rolled.
But I think your car will run on E85 which is 15% ethanol. Sort of standard. I’m still waiting for an affordable electric sports car. The acceleration that an electric motor can provide is huge. The Tesla is an example of this. The electric future does not have to be boring.
I am brokering Earth Hour credits from North Korea … got a few for myself too, so now I don’t have to do anything. ☺ You can do this too.
Please send money to me via PayPal and I’ll email you some Earth Hour credits and you can go about your Saturday night as usual and not have to feel guilty. Just kidding. ☺ (But ain’t that pretty much how carbon credits work?)
Ross McI is my hero. Love that dissent piece.
I’m sorry, please forgive. I didn’t even realize it was that time of year again as I took a nap and slept right through it. Unfortunately, this means that I didn’t have a chance to turn all my lights on to celebrate. Shucks…. I’ll try again next year. My wife is liking the idea of the Hollywood lights, perhaps I will get in my reservation early for next year.
Pamela Gray said: ” I’m a wee little lass and don’t care much for cold bums.”
I don’t care much for cold bums myself, but wee little lasses, now that’s a different story. So stoke that fire and shine those lights, Pamela Gray.
Actually, tomorrow’s as good a time as any to take “Minnie” (my smallish 1.6 TFLOPS
rig) offline and give ‘er a good dusting.
I’ll fire her back up at the stroke of Earth Hour.
Feel free to consider all the lights ‘dimming’ in my neighborhood as a token gesture.
Amino Acids in Meteorites says:
March 25, 2011 at 7:11 pm
My commitment:
to not even care that it’s happening
===========================
lol, I admire the dedication to not caring!
The New South Wales state election is on today, and their Labor left government lights look like going out tonight for many years with polls showing support at only 23%…
I’m arc-welding during Earth Hour—with my porto-smelter I’m making an aluminum vat to hold 10,000 gallons crude oil. To help me, I’m using thirty-five 10,000 Watt mercury bulbs to illuminate my garage—with four 5,000 watt back-up gas generators in case I pop a few fuses.
old construction worker says:
March 25, 2011 at 6:17 pm
“James Sexton says:
March 25, 2011 at 5:31 pm
“There was Earth Hour tonight?”
lol, yeh, I know there’s one every year, but I didn’t know it was tonight until I read the post! I thought it coincided with that earthday birthday thingy. I think in honor of earth hour, Imma have some ethanol and use it for its intended purposes! Yea! Earth hour!”
DITO. But I was working on my Tax obligation.
====================================
I highly discourage the ethanol until after the tax obligation effort is concluded. Experience has taught me not to undertake such ventures! Afterward, the ethanol almost seems obligatory. At least for me. Oddly, another compulsion is to continually look down upon my breast and wonder how they mistook me for a giver of nourishment? Another wonderment is my fleeting but sudden empathy for a sow? Always such strange thoughts and emotions this time of year.
*Ignored it eitherway* was the cast vote. Presumably, earth means global, and since every hour is an earth hour, there is nothing to distinguish it from any other, or no reason to separate ourselves from the earth as though it were a mechanism that can be externalised from our experience, and not the harmonious environment that we inhabit
I therefore urge everyone to say no to this piece of sententious nonsense, and carry on as usual.
About Noon today (Friday) I drove between two (with a third one in the far distance) wind turbine electrical generating regions [‘regions’ because they cover a large area]. All three of these places are on the hills surrounding the Kittitas Valley (near Ellensburg) of Washington State east of the Cascade Mountains. This Valley is noted for its strong and persistent winds.
Did I mention that not a single one of the several hundred generators was generating! Not one. There was no wind but it made me think tonight as I read the comments here that perhaps (in the future) a well meaning government (whose?) could order all power turned off so that we had to comply with earth hour. Prepare!
It is near but slightly above freezing here with snow in the mountains of Washington State.
I think I’ll turn up the heat!
Take me to your leader [sarc]
I’ll be doing nothing in support of this farce. Supporters do not realise a power station cannot be “turned off for 60 minutes just like your lights” and then “turned back on just like your lights” etc…the whole thing is a joke IMO and was created by someone here in Aus who has no clue.
“Tom Harley says:
March 25, 2011 at 9:10 pm”
I thought there would be non-stop coverage of the election today, but no. I guess left leaning, pro-Labor MSM are laying low knowing Labor are about to be sent a very significant message.
Anthony,
Last year I turned on all the lights we could, but this year it appears we will still be on the generator and it will not make any impact on the grid.
Rattus Norvegicus says:
‘But I think your car will run on E85 which is 15% ethanol.’
Please forgive…You are, of course, quite correct.
You may accurately infer that I am not a car mechanic or indeed a scientist of any sort.
But I
Rattus Norvegicus says:
‘But I think your car will run on E85 which is 15% ethanol.’
Please forgive…You are, of course, quite correct.
You may accurately infer that I am not a car mechanic or indeed a scientist of any sort.
But I do rather like the burble of the 8 cylinders of a Corvette. Goes like the dogs bollocks too to use a phrase.
My God the guilt…..
Ah well…
Earth Hour is a bit like New Years Eve – apart from a few scattered outposts and colonies like New Zealand, it hits Queensland, Australia as the first civilised State.
Right now, it is five and a half hours before the madness of Earth Hour here in Queensland, and I am dusting off my emergency kleig lights (which I haven’t used since last EH).
What I’m wondering about is the obvious temporal dislocation exhibited in this thread, particularly by those who have voted. People, Earth Hour hasn’t started yet!
I will be one of the first in the civilised world to celebrate the Hour of Power at 8:30 p.m. local time tonight, Saturday night 26th March.
There is still a chance for all of you to come to the party!
mike g – you wrote on March 25, 2011 at 5:35 pm:
“I will be helping to generate 1.850 gw-hr of emission free energy during that hour”.
Mike – you should convert your generator to coal fired equipment.
That way you can increase global CO2 emissions which will in turn boost global food production.
That extra food is sorely needed to feed the growing world population.
Come on mike, you can do it!
Being neutral on CO2 is so last century’s look.
I’ll turn on all my lights. Most of our lights are CFLs anyway, so it won’t cost me much. BTW, we didn’t do that to be “green” but to save ourselves money. When we moved into this house 11 years ago, it was 3 times bigger than our old house and have tons of can lights. I don’t want to give Excel Energy any more of my money than I have to.
Tip: CFLs don’t work as outside house lights. They take too long to warm up when it’s cold.
I’ll be at the football tonight, so I’ll be participating when the Australian Football League turns off the lighting for an hour.
I mean, I’m sure they will – after all, they stage a “Green Round” every year to demonstrate their practical commitment to the environment. They even encourage us to take public transport to the football that weekend. And I’m sure, although it’s never been publicised, that on “Green Round” weekend the teams use electric buses, rather than planes, to travel for interstate games.
It’s not about empty symbolism or bandwagon jumping – oh no, the AFL is for real in its commitment to environmental causes.
And speaking of commitment – I suppose I’d better stop by my business premises on the way to the footy, to make sure I’ve turned off all “non-essential lighting” (as was suggested by the Earth-Hour-supporting franchisor in a memo this week). As opposed to every other weekend, of course, when I always leave the non-essential lighting on.
The franchisor operates the central business pretty much 24/7 and I’m sure they’ll be shutting down for an hour. I mean, I’m sure their commitment goes well beyond asking franchisees to make sure they turn off lighting that was not going to be on in any case.
I’m sure they (the AFL and the franchisor) will do these things. I’m sure they will. I’m a believer.
As usual, I’ll be celebrating “Power Hour” (can I trademark that term?) by cranking up March Madness full blast on every tv in the house.
On the same note as the UN, somebody take a picture anywhere in the state of Connecticut tomorrow night. Let’s see how basketball fares against Earth Hour.
Robert E. Phelan says:
March 25, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Hi Robert, many big corporations in the Philippines, also Coca Cola, were buying newspaper ads or distributing posters, that they are supporting the EH to “help save the planet”. It seems that the WWF has taken over the function of the IPCC in continuing and drumming up global climate alarmism.
I’ll try not to release any methane. But I can’t make any guarantees.
It was tonight? Meh, I was drinking at the pub with friends. Otherwise, I might have turned on all my lights and maybe burned a tire.
A bit of light entertainment from Monty Python (making fun of Superman)
http://www.youtube.com/MontyPython#p/a/CDFEA6D52E5CC0EC/1/U01xasUtlvw
UN: Lights for we….not for thee!
At 8:30 p.m. Saturday I shall turn on all externally visible lights in my house and take my high-intensity discharge spotlight out on the upper deck and point it at the sky. I emits an impressive beam although it has but a 35W 6000K Xenon bulb. As luck has it, the battery lasts just about one hour.
I live on top of a ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and I’m just a little off to the side of the approach path to San Jose airport. The light is nowhere near to being hazardous to aircraft but I assure you it will be quite noticeable against the generally dark background of my sparsely populated mountain top covered by redwoods and oaks.
Oh, yes, and I’ll of course leave all five computers running while I cook a nice pork roast in the electric oven.
I can see it now… our 16 year old daughter ,
– who dries her clothes on the heater in the middle of summer,
– who will turn the heater on rather than put sensible clothing on,
– who will use the oven to dry her shoes,
– who takes 30 minutes to have a shower with the taps on full,
– who only travels to the local shops by car rather than walk the 1 km trip.. etc –
….will insist we all turn the lights off to show we care for the Earth….
Earth Hour: The ritual of the skeptical religious.
Ross McIttrick’s article got an honorable mention on the Rush Limbaugh show this afternoon. It probably increased his audience by a couple of orders of magnitude. Almost as good as getting a plug on Oprah Winfrey’s show.
If turning out the lights meant we could watch the stars, then I’d turn out the lights and damn the inference some idiots would draw from it – because letting the kids see the stars is worthwhile.
But as far as I know no one around here is doing anything.
Someone said…
But I think your car will run on E85 which is 15% ethanol
Well I don’t care. I’m gonna drive my truck for earth day and fill up with hi-test and turn all the lights and computers and run the machine shop and… the computers and…
TURN BACK THE DARK!!!!!
I am going to turn the lights out, but breathe heavily for one hour.
(hang on, I may have to re-draft that!)
What’s earth hour?
@ Richard,1022pm. Let us know if the Australian World Cup Cricket team joins you at the footie. 🙂
I shall be at work, burning gas to make electricity.
I’m gonna spend the day programming and testing a 14.4KW electric oven (convection solder reflow), for a customer. Saturday is not a business day for the customer, so ALL the heat will be used (vented) to bring on Spring weather, with NO actual work performed, except for program debugging!
I’m only sorry all the testing cannot be performed during “earth hour”, but I’ll warm up the power lines in preparation!!!
“Glad to be of service.” ~~Marvin [: |]
It’s 20:30 Kiwi Time (GMT + 13), and I have my exterior lights on, garage lights on with door wide open. Air Cond is running but ambient temperature is just about righ so not much being used there.
Probably about 2.5 Kw is best I can do – oh must boil kettle
Don’t see much activity – all lights in neighbourhood look just as usual – apart from mine
Andy
Sacrifice. That’s the key word. I sacrificed. I held back food from the creatures in my glow-worm grotto in case they gave a false reading to the satellites and I also wrapped them in aluminium foil in case anyone sent out electromagnetic control beams to activate them. Take that, spy in the sky! Gotcha!
We’re having our Earth hour here in NZ now.
Just a usual Saturday Evening here. Lights stay on. I will not take part in a load of PC Greenwash Garbage this way.
Sarc/
I suppose in the future if certain Facist Greenie elements and their ilk have their way. Those who don’t take part in this rubbish will be rounded up by the ‘Green Police’ and taken away to some re-education camp. Sarc off/
What’s more laughable as in previous Earth hours. We’ve had special events organised including outdoor candle holding ceremonies, fireworks displays and even bonfires going off to celebrate it. Makes a mockery of the save the world from CO2 emissions,etc!
Turn off the mystic Met Office 1.2MW computer?
Andy C – well done from the Eastern Colony!
I know that it is difficult for you off-shore people. But, 2.5 Kw is OK, given your constained circumstances.
My residence will be sucking probably 20 Kw during Earth Hour….. just grid. In fact, we should all log our peak usage, and do an international “compare and contrast” to see who exactly are the bad-asses of the failed enviro-loon nonsense that for some obscure reason has gained MSM oxygen.
Lights on!
Just got up to find the central heating not working.
A man can’t come until tomorrow.
So we’ll have a coal fire on tonight, and a couple of electric heaters, as well as ALL the lights.
You don’t suppose we have a convert to scepticism in the chip that runs the gas central heating boiler do you……………..?
The poll is for entertainment purposes only, and is not scientific.
*****************
So, this poll is similar to published climate science papers? Got it.
I love the idea of hijacking the event and turning it into a celebration of technology: celebrating how we humans do not have to freeze in a dark cave anymore! Turn on the lights! Start up your engine! Burn the oil in a giant blaze!
Do you think the Greenies throw any virgins into a volcano for their celebration?
Tom Bodette has entered the building?
Well, since it’s been basically dumping cold rain on me like crazy ( 600% of normal over the last 14 days) and it’s supposed to be continuing to dump snow like crazy in the Sierra Nevada, I intend to be turning on all the computers in my office while I sit next to a large 1.5 kW Electric heater with about 500 W of incandescent lightbulbs (as I’ve stashed a liftetime supply) trying to keep warm while doing “computer work”…
http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2011/03/26/california-snow/
http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/ultimate-bulb-ban-fix/
http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2010/12/28/dimmer-bulbs/
I feel I should apolgise for my fellow Australians who initiated this lunacy … having said that, it seems to be causing much frivolity around the place. I have my A/C running despite it only being 30C outside (apparent temp only 27.6C). Given the A/C is set at 24C it is almost redundant 🙂
Now that my US-born wife is back (she just flew in from NY – where it was the same temp today … different scale though) I am sure she will be leaving lights on around the place. For once I won’t switch them off behind her.
We all do our little bit to keep the poor power companies ticking over.
I suspect there will be a lot of lights on in New South Wales, Australia. State election results coming in, change of government on the way – see
http://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-election-2011-latest-updates-and-comment/story-e6frfkvr-1226028144507
So that image is from earth hour 2011?
Look at the date here:
http://eagleinnyc.wordpress.com/2011/03/18/the-un-building-lights-up-the-night-sky/
Someone please confirm
Oh I see, it’s from the 25th
https://www.facebook.com/DavidCameron/posts/163503877035991
Anyone in the UK voting for lights on might want to sign in on this thread.
8:30pm on Saturday evening? I shall be listening to the end of Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades” from the NY Metropolitan Opera, and wishing I could accommodate (and afford to run) a lighting kit on the scale of theirs to light up the neighbourhood to celebrate. Maybe I’ll just turn it up a little, and add a watt or two – “every little ‘elps”.
Re David Menzies in Toronto – brilliant (in every sense). That must be one of the most spectacular middle digits ever – please. somebody in (or near) Toronto, send Anthony a photo of the actual event to post!
Graeme says:
March 25, 2011 at 6:04 pm
While Earth Hour is in progress I will be on a CO2 generating Business class flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne.
I’ll have an extra glass of CO2 laden champange to celebrate the technical marvel of modern air travel that allows us to travel to any reasonable spot on this globe in approx not more than 24 hours.
Long live human innovation and courage to live in the face of the human hating greens.
________
Make it two extra glasses…one for me!
I have an ICD (800 volt defibrillator) implanted in my chest, in case my heart stops beating, like it did last year. I can temporarily disable it by putting a magnet over it, but that would only save energy if I happened to have a cardiac arrest during earth hour. I think that modern pacemakers operate in a similar way and might also have the ability to be switched off. They are using electricity all the time (inconsiderate bast*rds) so could I suggest that anyone who is able to, switches off their pacemaker (or that of a loved one) during earth hour. I know that the energy savings will be quite small and there would probably be a few fatalities, but surely it is a small price to pay for saving the planet.
I normally post my Earth Hour salute at the exact hour, but I’ll start it early to get on this list in time!
http://polistrasmill.blogspot.com/2011/03/its-earth-hour.html
I’m waiting for the announcement of just how much CO2 was ‘saved’ because of all the folks who showed the world how much they care.
Sean Houlihane says:
March 26, 2011 at 3:42 am
https://www.facebook.com/DavidCameron/posts/163503877035991
Anyone in the UK voting for lights on might want to sign in on this thread.
____________________
It’s worth clicking that link just to read David Cameron’s extra- stoopid statement.
In the past I have ignored Earth day completely. But now that the UK government have committed to observing it, I feel doing nothing is no longer an option. As a wise man once noted, all it takes for evil to succeed is for good men (or women) to do nothing.
I will be switching on lights, albeit CFL’s, and making sure that I use the clothes dryer at that time. Can’t afford to go mad though, not at these prices.
Hyperthermania
Is the pacemaker a plutonium cell?.
I’m just trying to get an accurate measure of how green you really are.Or are you just being selfish and insist on living?….but therein also lies some awfully confusing signals from the eco-fanatics.
sarc
Menzies, I was thinking of doing that, but never got round to it. Right ON! or is that Light On! 🙂
I will be turning on all my lights, maybe leave my Jeep running in the drieway, if I’m at home. I do not subscribe to this religion and its absurd superstitious rituals..
House minding, have the plasma tv on, watching the NSW election reporting, drinking red wine, fed the dog, lights on, waiting for the movie Die Hard, Anderson then realized Earth Hour was being observed – when? 8-30pm same time as Die Hard.
Turn power off?
Nooooooo way.
Sorry earth
I watched basketball on television for earth hour. I watched basketball most of the night, March Madness, you know.
Earth Hour is all about symbolism. We have 2 porch lights which I believe use 40w bulbs (which probably last ten years or more, since we don’t use them very often). At precisely 8:30 PM, as our upraised middle finger to eco-tards everywhere celebrating “Earth Hour”, I will switch those lights on. However, I will be sure to shut off any lights we don’t actually need inside, so as not to wind up with an electric bill increased by 1.4 cents ($.176/kwh x .08 kwh). Must be the Scottish blood in me.
Which reminds me; I need to practice saying “eleven”.
Typed it on an IPad Anderson should read And then I……
It’s past 9PM here in Hervey Bay. At 8PM, I put the stove oven on , 5kw, and cooked 2 chickens to have cold tomorrow for lunch. (with salad)
Lunch will be held 40 nm away on the aft deck of my boat. To get there, I’ll burn about 350 litres of gas, 16 cylinders at a time.
Surely, by 6PM Sunday, I will have created at least one earthquake, at least a 6, or maybe a hurricane or 2 or maybe have raised the sea level by several cms, but I’ll check that when I get back to my floating pontoon .
I was going to vote “Earth Hour?” I mean, I was aware of the concept and that it was coming up but not when it’s supposed to be held. But apparently even the cell phone companies are sending out texts exhorting cell phone owners to take part in the stupidity, since my mom mentioned that it’s tonight. Then she turned off the lights—and turned on battery-run (previously charged from the grid) emergency lights instead of candles. So I ended up voting “Ignore” then spent most of Earth Hour reading this loooong thread with my own lights on. Whoa! So many comments already!
I will be turning on everything and maybe turn my house into a one hour sauna.
this is the anarchists trying to cause a transformer failure in the grid. if the power utilities don’t have enough to deal with.
it is like getting everyone to flush the toilet at the same time ..unintended consequences of backup sewers and sh!t in people basements.
Hyperthermania
your are a feeble joke if you think that has any impact besides in your own mind. if you really cared you would stop breathing out CO2 for the hour.
I liked the satellite shot of North & South Korea from last years “Earth Hour”.
The North in it’s complete ignorance of such nonsense was in almost total darkness. While the South basked in the glow of conspicuous consumption.
‘Earth Hour’ only serves to highlight the futility of such gestures.
I’m in New York and can get a photo of the UN if that is desired. As someone earlier mentioned, the building is undergoing a renovation and the cross is from the elevator shaft crossing with some sort of full-floor scaffold.
The building is going to make a great condo when the UN leaves town.
Will the MSM report on how many house fires were started due to the fanatics burning candles during lights-out?
Here in New Zealand, trademe.co.nz (Our version of eBay) has helped sponsor this annual charade. not surprising really as its well known the founders Sam and Gareth Morgan are believers in the AWG Religion.
While I appreciate the symbolic gesture against conspicuous consumption in general it represents. The hitching of ‘Earth Hour’ to that phoney CAGW star is what has accelerated it’s demise.
Last year I would remind normal people of this ‘ocassion’ , if only in a half joking way, but this year I wouldn’t even to presume to trouble them with it.
Now if ‘Earth Hour’ were always to coincide with the clocks going forward , at the start of British Summer Time, as it happens to this year, that would serve some useful purpose, in reminding us we have to get up an hour earlier tomorrow, but otherwise it is now completely pointless , other than to point up the futility of human endeavour.
It’s my parents Diamond (60th) Wedding Anniversary today, and we are having a family party this evening. I jokingly suggested that we should turn all the lights out and observe Earth Hour – I’m sure you can guess the response….
We were at the Lostine Tavern last night when a quick side-ways blizzard hit town. As the snow monster blew through, we cranked up the oil furnace and did our share to prepare for Saturday’s Earth Hour by drinking as much CO2 as we could. So there ya go. We managed to stay warm AND CO2 neutral.
My ‘Earth Hour’ will take place at 01:00 Sunday, 27th March (UK-GMT) and will end at 02:00 Sunday, 27th March (UK-BST). 😉
Here in Tokyo we are celebrating Earth Hour with enforced conservation due to the shortage of electricity caused by the earthquake and tsunami. Fortunately, we live in a more industrial part of the city that, as a result, receives priority power so we can continue to waste as normal while the more wealthy parts of the city have to do with less.
Damn, and I took my Christmas lights down the day after Christmas because they were predicting a major snow storm with high winds (we got the snow, but the winds were rather wimpy) .
I’ll see if I can run every appliance and light in the place.
I will be celebrating by releasing some CO2 ‘prisoners’ that have been incrcerated in my fridge. Inside ten bottles of beer to be precise
The first prisoners released will be given the mission to increase precipitation in deserts
The first prisoners released will be given the mission to decrease precipitation in flloded oz
Third batch, remove snow from kilamanjaro
Fourth batch, cause an earthquake in the middle of the pacific, away from people
fifth set of prisoners – increase global warming
sixth set – increase global cooling
seventh set – increase kilamanjaro on snow
eighth bottle – leave then polar bears alone alone alone
ninth batch – hockey hockey hockey schtick
ten – what was i saying ?
EO
Joe: “Now if ‘Earth Hour’ were always to coincide with the clocks going forward , at the start of British Summer Time, as it happens to this year, that would serve some useful purpose . . .”
I’ll do you one better. My proposal is that we have Earth Hour actually happen during that hour in the spring that gets skipped (I think it is between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning in the U.S.?). That way there will be no electricity whatsoever used and no emissions whatsoever, and just as importantly, everyone will be forced to participate and no-one will even have to remember to participate. Also, beneficially, most of us can sleep through it!
Would that I had the discretionary income to make such a statement as those rotating beams!
I’d rent green ones, to be able to tell the ecopolizei I was signalling space alien refugees from Atlantis to come back and show us how to live!
Come back!
rotfl
“I have rented four rotating Hollywood movie lights which will light up the sky for miles,”
Hey! He stole my idea! (see my post yesterday at 5:50 pm)
Oh well. It couldn’t hurt to have two people on the continent doing it tonight.
@AusieDan
Agreed, the CO2 would be very useful to the environment. However, the economics of best-available scrubbing for SO2, NOx, etc., not to mention sky high costs for best-available Hg elimination technology (which hasn’t really been invented, yet), makes the next large base-load coal-fired plant not cost-effective compared to even the incredibly expensive crop of nuclear reactors currently under construction.
So, we’d have to switch to burning natural gas in order to get the CO2 production benefits for mankind without all the costs of scrubbing the pollutants. But, the Obama EPA is starting to look at reigning in the gas industry’s new production techniques (with good reason–pumping untold chemical soup into the ground to fracture rock formations sounds a lot worse to me than what is going on at Fukishima right now). Not to mention the fact that demand for clean buring gas will soon outstrip the new supplies. I’m still paying 2+ cents/kw-hr on my utility bill in fuel adjustment charges from the last gas price spike, and the bottom fell out of gas prices how many years ago, now?
If that cannuck would shine those rotating beams on the nearest government-subsidized solar energy park, he’d do more measurable good for the environment than the entire green movement has done in their history of do-gooding.
It’s more like spot-the-sucker hour. I’m going to ignore it. (I didn’t wear green on St. Patrick’s Day either, by the way.) I had enough of peer pressure in high school.
I’m turning on my lights, having a couple of pops and watching the Leafs-Wings hockey game.
Since I live in Toronto, I’m also toasting David Menzies.
And in your face former Mayor Nitwit, I mean Miller – the clown who would jet off to every climate conference and sheepishly accept the moronic daily fossil award on “behalf” of Canada. What a mayor was doing WASTING TAXPAYER MONEY at these stupid things is nothing more than theft.
Wasn’t Earth Hour invented by WTF?
I plan on driving to a fast food place. Either that or a BBQ making sure to use charcoal. Maybe I can get some friends to drive alone in their cars to get here. It’s snowing in Nebraska today. Not enough to use the snowblower but, I think I’ll get it out anyway.
Is it correct that earth hour was one of those grass root thingy that promptly got hijacked by WWF?
First of all, if that is true, why is it that WWF can’t but not invent anything, so to speak, by their own accord?
Secondly now it is WWF that gets cred for “organizing” earth hour every year, because they’re so “nice”, and not because it fills their treasure chests.
Thirdly it takes more ‘an three hundred and fifty thousand people donating $10 to pay the head of WWF international yearly salary. And then it could be as many more to cover his travel, hotel, and food, expenses each year. So essentially people donate more money to him than what goes to the supposedly polar bears every year. And they claim it is a non-profit organization?
Lance says:
March 25, 2011 at 5:50 pm
“I refuse to sit in the dark in the name of a sanctimonious, irrational and failed theory.”
ACK
Why not writing it into the sky by a big, huge energy consuming laser?
That’ll clearly enforce this argument.
I’ll be a installing a couple of line-interactive 1kw UPS’s for the PC’s and router and maybe a few LED lamps for the stairs and bathroom. That should keep me online and from taking a tumble in the dark.
‘Cos when TPTB in the UK shut off a dozen of our base load power stations and add more unreliables I’ve a feeling we’re going to need them.
Earth Hour, Save the polar bear, sorting your recycling into boxes, its all just pointless busy work
At that time, I’ll be watching a mid-Missouri snowstorm and wondering when my oldest will be getting out the shower (electric water heater). The water and 15kv electric furnace that is running due to “global climate disruption” should give me some decent power consumption figures.
Drove my old truck (15mpg) about 20 miles for a pack of smokes and to get gas for it and the yard equipment. Used up about 8 gallons of gas mowing, etc. (I have about 3 acres in grass and decorative plants). Left the TV, lights and computer on for the entire day, while the wife did a lot of baking in the electric oven. What’s this “Earth hour/day” thing all about anyway? 😉
I’m going to turn on all lights and the clothes dryer.
Earth hour???
Didn’t get much publicity this side of the pond. Everyone more interested in the cosmically important issue of who won The Boat race!
My contribution to Earth Hour will be limited by the capacity of the various ring mains in our house, so just like carbon traders I will max out my utilisation of CO2 by taking each circuit to the limit. If enough people switch stuff on, it will help move the economy along a bit – our own QE.
Alternatively we could go along with this bollocks, make it permanent and take out the entire global economy, causing mass starvation, reducing population and dragging the human race back to the stone age.
Well, I just called the rental place to ask how much the quadruple searchlight costs to rent.
$400/night + gasoline to run the thing.
Yikes!
I guess I’ll have to put it off until next “Earth Hour” (assuming these morons can gin up enough media attention to do it again next year) when I can get a few fossil fuel loving friends to go in on it with me.
I’ll just have to settle for turning on all my lights, appliances, TVs, stereos and other electric and gas powered devices for an hour.
Look for my house on Google earth, it will be the brightest object in central Indiana.
mike g says:
March 25, 2011 at 5:35 pm
I will be helping to generate 1.850 gw-hr of emission free energy during that hour.
By causing 5.60 gw-hr of energy to be liberated from a few grams of U-235, 238 and various Pu isotopes.
You’re a VERY naughty boy!
I am going to a high energy usage Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band concert tonight.
Frank K. says:
March 25, 2011 at 7:07 pm
Actually, I’ll switch everything off in my house to simulate life with only wind and solar power instead of coal and nukes…
=====================================
That gave me a chuckle !!!!
@DLBrown says:
March 26, 2011 at 1:52 pm
I am going to a high energy usage Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band concert tonight.
Dang. Is he still able to sing? His voice sounded worn out to me when I was still a kid in the seventies.
Just sitting watching the BBC for news of smashed banks, bonfires of traffic cones and plastic barriers spewing out all manner of nasty chemicals, pundits talking of magic money fairies and no Plan B following riots in London. I found time to symbolically turn on 5 extra lights for 30 seconds, but I don’t think anyone would have noticed as they probably also have a life.
This must be what tweeting is like?
Earth Hour..? We in the UK have got Earth YEAR coming – because our political servants passed the Climate Change Act in 2008 (on a Friday afternoon – clever tactic) which means that BY LAW we must have reduced our emissions by EIGHTY PERCENT by 2050. (Our emissions, by the way, represent 1.84% of global emissions – so you can see just how effective this will be…)
So – anyone planning to do business in the UK, or visit, had better do so before that date – because we’ll be living in freezing cold; killing pensioners by the hundred thousand; businesses will effectively be non-existent; next to no transport; food shortages; etc, etc…
Oh – I am so glad I’ll be long gone….
It’s been a very busy day in the UK, or at least in England and Wales:
1. For the ordinary worker, especiallay the saturday pub-visitor there was the England v Wales Fooball (Soccer) match.
2. For the eternally optimistic there was the England v Sri-Lanka World Cup Cricket match.
3. For the traditional and the great and the good there was the Oxford/Cambridge Boat Race.
4. For the Jeremy Clarksons there was practice for tomorrow’s Grand Prix in Australia.
5. I think there was some big horse race in Arabia for those with more money than sense.
6. Oh and for those that think the Government can simply print more and more money forever and never economise on anything there was a mega march and demonstration in London.
Earth Hour? What’s Earth Hour? Just about all shades of opinion have been burning the midmight, midday and all the other oil as quickly and in as great a quantity as possible all day.
Just checked the UK’s NETA tables – showing electricity demand over last, current and following days…
Remarkably similar today to yesterday – peaking at 42000Mw…..
Hey-ho…. Think I’ll boil the kettle and make a cup of tea…
Turn out your lights! Help stop earthquakes!
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/natural-disasters-boost-earth-hour-20110326-1cb8y.html
Earth Hour??
That’s so last year.
Let’s get people jobs and lay-off those blood sucking climate scientists.
I have a yard light on my 5 acres that can be seen from 20 to 50 miles away depending on the direction because I live on a very high hill. It is seldom used and is on for only 12 – 18 hours each year because I like the dark, and it interferes with observations from my observatory.
I do turn it on for Earth Hour, however, at dusk and turn it off when I go to bed between midnight and 1:00 AM. So my highly visible light will be on for at least 6 hours tonight. I think tonight I’ll turn on my front porch light also. It is not as large but can be seen for the same distances.
Commeth the hour commeth some good programmes on TV – so I completely forgot about the Earth Hour – I had considered switching ON all my lights (but forgot about that too).
Still – I did watch the TV in HD with the Dolby 5.1 – so might just about have managed to increase my useage a little.
I should be able to see Menzies’ lights from my window. I’ll be looking for them around 8:30pm. ;^)
MrC
Sonofmulder 2.24pm
Grumpy old bugger. At least we won the boat race.
It’s going to be VERY cold for a barbeque tonight in Toronto – forecast low of -12 C. While I’d love to follow the searchlights to David Menzies’ house and offer him my support (and do a little noshing on the side) I think I will instead nestle down in my warm home, with the electric fire on full blast, and read WUWT, with every light on in the house. I must do my bit to warm up this outrageously cold climate- even if the only possible effect is inside or to the local UHI!
Rattus Norvegicus says:
March 25, 2011 at 8:50 pm
I understand that the classic Porche, gutted and fixed with an electric motor and batteries, is ideal, and even has acceleration comparable to the original. As batteries get lighter, it will get better. Not sure who sells the kit, but that is why Google are there.
You’ll miss the 2 minutes at the pump filling up, however, but then you could put the 1o hours recharge time to good use!
“David S says:
March 26, 2011 at 3:56 pm
Sonofmulder 2.24pm
Grumpy old bugger. At least we won the boat race.”
Probably only because Cambridge switched off in solidarity with Earth Day, as did the England cricket team. There you go, proof that Global warming causes global sporting disruption.
From Rattus Norvegicus on March 25, 2011 at 8:50 pm:
*bzzzt* INCORRECT!
E85 is “up to” 85% denatured ethanol by volume.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E85
Thus it’s good moonshine that’s been poisoned, denatured, with a toxic chemical like benzene, then further adulterated with 15% or more of real gasoline, to make a less-effective pretend substitute for real gasoline, that’s far worse than even the common E10. Yuck.
=====
Oh look, it’s almost “Safety test of every light in the house” hour! Anyone know where PPL (Pennsylvania) keeps their fine-detailed usage charts?
BTW, does the UN realize they’ve created an excellent nighttime target for a 9/11-type incident?
“…all other city buildings are essentially dark at 6 a.m… Only the U.N. Secretariat building is fully lit throughout the night.”
Rents are pretty pricey in Manhattan… I suspect some of the poorer country U.N. Representatives are living in the building with family in tow to save that extra per diem. It’s also “green” to be living close to work.
The lights are probably the older incandescent bulbs used to warm the rooms when the main automatic thermostat turns the heat down during “after hours” when it’s supposed to be empty. Baby chicks like heat from incandescent bulbs too… maybe there’s some of them in there as well… do I smell methane gas ?
I’ve met and seen some of these individuals in action… I call it “selfish hypocrisy”.
Un-fund the U.N.. The sooner the better. O.K. U.N., it’s “Lights Out !!” for you !
Try a “dry run” tonight !
Richard Day says:
March 26, 2011 at 9:56 am
And in your face former Mayor Nitwit, I mean Miller – the clown who would jet off to every climate conference and sheepishly accept the moronic daily fossil award on “behalf” of Canada. What a mayor was doing WASTING TAXPAYER MONEY at these stupid things is nothing more than theft.
————-
Agree completely! Hopefully the coming federal election will boot out a few more of his ilk at the federal level – we need more adults running the country, not fairy-tale endorsing boy-scouts.
.
.
Bravo for David Menzies! One of our favourite TV personalities.
Our house street-transformer is supposed to allow us 18.5 kw. Tonight we’ll let the wood-stove go out, and turn on the electric heat full blast. The lights, being those lethal mercury coiled fluorescent types, and the LEDs, won’t help much; they’ll just add a satisfying sort of luminescent glory in this “green” hole neighbourhood — like in Canadjan NDP-green. However, the electric heat and stove and large TV and clothes dryer should do the trick. A few more kw from 3 idling vehicles will add to the mood.
Tonight we celebrate another year of successful, thrifty efficiency; we have saved several thousand dollars, so why not celebrate with a kilowatts-hour party.
.
.
As last year, and the year before, I offer the California electric grid website.
http://caiso.com/outlook/SystemStatus.html
This chart is updated around midnight so it will only show for a few more hours (5 and one-half, roughly) what happened on Saturday March 26. Human Achievement Hour (Earth hour) starts, if one looks at the bottom-right of the chart, midway between 20 and 21 hours (8 and 9 pm) and ends midway between 21 and 22 hours (9 and 10 p.m.).
For the past two years, there was zero discernible difference in the smoothly declining power demand during that time. I expect the same thing this year.
Turned ON all the lights (but not appliances—they don’t make much of a display), opened the shades and blinds, and watched Herman Cain and John Bolton in Iowa on C-Span (our real public broadcasting system!).
Enjoyable and rewarding hour.
/Mr Lynn
Did the laundry that I usually do Sun mornings. Still drying it now. This Earth Hour bit requires a bit more work on my part but worth it. I did concvince some friends that tuning their lights off would crash the grid so they stopped doing that.
Well my mud hour observance has begun. It takes me 3 hours to complete as I power down from 7:30 to 8:30, power up again during the mud hour, then power down again for 1 hour.
Can’t wait for this years statistics ,last year in my city was 1.2 % power reduction compared to the before and after hour. Hope to get it lower this year.
I am composing this message off the grid, my smartphone, though have to keep power on my wireless router.
I totally forgot to do anything. I noticed exactly no sign that anyone else around here did anything, and unlike the first year and last year the news hasn’t mentioned it. I must say I’m confused by the people here who did do something for it, I don’t understand what difference you think it will make to anything.
It has been below freezing all day here in Grouse Hollow, Eastman Village, Grantham, NH. Tink Fitzhew was visiting, sitting by the fire…. I’ll write it all up for a story here.
‘Invested’ a year ago in a rebuilt 1983 Mercedes *300TD (the ‘touring’ wagon with self-leveling rear suspension) possessing mechanical fuel injection system capable of burning diesel *and* waste veggie oil (WVO) without modification, *and* without the need for transesterification of the WVO into a ‘biodiesel’ form, instead, just running straight vegetable oil when temperatures allow, and in Texas, that means beginning now … friend has been at this for a few years and has worked out the an easy system for filtering the WVO into a form that can be used as WVO fuel directly into the ‘gas’ tank … so really, I don’t care what the EPA mandates at this point …
About E10 (10% alcohol as currently mandated) onwards to E15, be advised, that those ratios may or may not actually be present in the fuel you just topped off with … it may be several points either way depending on the ‘blending’, and the ‘splash’ mixing process used as the fuel is transported to the retailer in the delivery truck, and, with this process sometimes this can result in a higher percentage of alcohol at the retail dispensing point (the gas pump) …
E10 Blending issues – http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=opera&hs=hT2&rls=en&channel=suggest&q=E10+blending+issues&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=
* 300TD W123 chassis – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_W123
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/earth-hour-fans-disappointed-to-see-so-many-lights-still-on/article1958336/
The Globe and Mail is forced to acknowledge this brainwashing has failed.
do googers running amok
do gooders running amok, jeez I hate it when that happens.
“Luther Wu says:
March 26, 2011 at 4:45 am”
Typically, in Australia, the MSM are all over Earth Hour like a rash. Apparently, power consumption in the Sydney CBD dropped ~15%. No figures put against how many CO2’s were saved this year. Shame the generators were still running through the farce. As someone else posted, its all about symbolism. Well here’s a symbol for these types …oloo…
I missed it, but so did everyone else in my area, apparently.
There was no mention of it on BBC or ITV news around the time it took place either.
I did turn the heating up a notch in protest, but no one noticed.
Ö¿Ö
Just to put it out there, I was at a bucks party, we had no idea it was Earth Hour, and we had an open fire which was producing a lot of smoke.
Awww…..
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/earth-hour-fans-disappointed-to-see-so-many-lights-still-on/article1958336/
so no piccie then, anyone?
“Matt says:
March 27, 2011 at 8:18 am”
What? Proof of Earth Hour (EH)? Thats almost as mystical as AGW. Try the Aussie MSM for stories about “how EH saved the planet”.
For what it’s worth, the UN building was dark last night. I was going to take a picture if the lights had been on.
Just for the record……
My suggestion that people switch off their pacemakers for earth hour was meant as a joke. I thought everyone would realise that it was such a ridiculously stupid idea to risk your life to save a microscopic amount of electricity, that no-one would take it seriously. But then I suppose it’s not that much more stupid than the EH idea in the first place. So I apologise to anyone who lost a loved one as a result of following my advice. However I can’t help but think that the gene pool will only have benefited in the long run 😉
So for clarity: Do not switch off any kind of life support system in order to save a bit of electricity. It might result in death.
P.S. What did I do for Earth Hour ? Well, sorry but even after reading this article, I have to admit that I clean forgot about it. Obviously not that high a priority !
REPLY: It was a very very bad joke, and I condemn the idea. -Anthony
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Another huge advantage of celebrating Kilowatts-Hour with every light in the house on is that you get to…
1. see things you’ve forgotten about
2. find missing stuff you’ve been looking for
3. find burnt-out everlasting eco-bulbs
4. realize just how horrid the working eco-bulb light-color is
5. cherish and make resolve to protect the remaining tungsten bulbs
6. cherish the memory of green when it meant the complementary color of red
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[[[wobble says:
March 27, 2011 at 10:04 am
For what it’s worth, the UN building was dark last night. I was going to take a picture if the lights had been on.]]]
I hope it stays dark… permanently.
Most UN Representatives are generally already “in the dark” about the world and can’t “see the light” . UN-fund the UN.
wws says:
March 25, 2011 at 5:13 pm
Crystal Cathedral in more ways than one! Look at that big Cross on the building, COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT!
Dang Crusaders, no wonder they’re goin’ after Libya!
The big cross is defined by shadow – a negative – perhaps they are batting for the other side.
Back in the 60’s my mother gave me a “talkin’ to” about symbolic gestures. There was a walk-a-thon to be held for some worthy cause and back when, I could walk a thousand miles without raising my heartrate. I told her I wanted to participate and she (bottom line of the talk) told me to give whatever I felt warranted to that forgotton cause because the walking was meaningless. If the cause was worthy, give what I thought was needed. Do what I thought was needed. But walking wasn’t going to do a “gosh-darn” thing (she doesn’t swear) to affect the whatever it was I was going to walk for and was a waste of my time.
That’s a great mom that teaches her children the difference between meaningful action and symbolic gestures and I have kept that lesson in my heart even ’til today, 40 years later.
Waste not, want not, but don’t turn off your electrically powered stuff in some symbolic gesture. Do it when you can because it saves you some cash.