Here’s a collection of thoughts, quotes, and of course the result of our WUWT poll on “what did you do for Earth Hour?
First, my own experience: Being keenly aware of it days ahead, even I forgot about it at the appointed time, having been distracted by normal family happenings, so I didn’t remember to turn on all my outdoor lights until 8:50PM. Given other news reports, it seems the novelty has worn off, and many many simply either forgot about it or don’t care.
Pointless symbolism isn’t what it used to be I suppose.
Here’s the newsbytes describing the (non)event worldwide (Thanks to Tom Nelson for many of them):
Toronto only sees 5 per cent power drop for Earth Hour
Is Toronto in the dark when it comes to Earth Hour?
Millions of people from 134 countries — from Delhi, India to Heidelberg, Germany — switched off their lights and televisions for the fifth annual Earth Hour on Saturday night to show their support for action on climate change.
But Toronto only saw a 5 per cent power drop during the event — half of the reduction achieved during Earth Hour in 2010.
The year before that, the city had a 15 per cent drop in megawatts being used.
“Honestly we still think it’s successful, we think it’s a great program,” said Jennifer Link, a spokeswoman for Toronto Hydro, who added that cool temperatures likely had many people using more heat than this time last year.
Earth Hour fans ‘disappointed’ to see so many lights still on
In Toronto, energy use fell by 115 megawatts between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., a drop of about 5 per cent, said Jennifer Link, a spokeswoman for Toronto Hydro.
Last year, the city’s Earth Hour efforts saved 296 megawatts; in 2009, it was 454 megawatts.
Meanwhile, Nova Scotia Power reported saving 10 megawatts of power, a significant drop from last year’s 18 megawatts.
Toledo pays little attention to Earth Hour
Locally, the Toledo Zoo participated in the event. Facebook responses included “this is so silly”, “there is no way I can close early to participate” “C’mon, on a freezing cold Saturday night?” and “I enjoyed the hour”.
h/t to reader Brad R for this one below:
“Utility provider Enmax reported no noticeable drop in power consumption between 8: 30 p.m. and 9: 30 p.m. Saturday, when residents were asked to participate in Earth Hour by shutting off all nonessential power.”
How Was Your Earth Hour? ~ Philippines
As we drove along Ortigas Avenue, I was freakishly disappointed. Why? Because lights were on and it was Earth Hour.
Inside the car, I thought I wanted to blame the relatively-poor marketing the Earth Hour guys had on this year (You haven’t really noticed the Earth Hour 2011 ads as well right? You know they were there but the campaign wasn’t convincing enough).
My Experience of Earth Hour | My Mind, Thoughts and Feelings
Unfortunately, where I was, it was only us who participated in this event.
My parents slept early and I was left with my two grandchildren, age 6 and 7. I had to explain to them what this was all about.
Being just kids, they were restless. They kept on asking me how long will this last and why was it our neighbors did not do the same thing. I told them that it will only last for one hour and they should be proud to be a part of this worldwide event, to take a stand against climate change.
While we were waiting for the hour to pass, I decided to say the rosary and let them join me.
…Kids have this way of asking questions that any mature person would not dare to ask.
…
Five minutes after the hour had passed, we turned on the lights. They kids were happy.
The Earth Hour has passed. In retrospect, I questioned myself if I can still go beyond.
Tonight, LAX pylons will go green — and then dark — to mark Earth Hour – chicagotribune.com
Earth Hour will come early to Los Angeles International Airport. The ring of 15 100-foot-tall towers near the airport’s entrance will light up a solid green at 7:30 p.m. — an hour before Earth Hour — and remain illuminated for 60 minutes. Then the lights will go out from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., an airport news release says.
[Yeah that’s just what I want from Earth Hour, screwing around with the electricity at one of the worlds busiest airports]
World switches off light as ‘Earth Hour’ begins
“We did hesitate a bit (about calling for Earth Hour in Japan) because there are many without electricity in disaster-hit areas,” said Naoyuki Yamagishi, climate change programme leader for WWF in Japan.
“We did hesitate a bit (about calling for Earth Hour in Japan) because there are many without electricity in disaster-hit areas,” said Naoyuki Yamagishi, climate change programme leader for WWF in Japan.
Leo Burnett Chicago Kicks Off the Next Generation of Earth Hour, Activates Global Social Media Campaign Reaching 128 Countries | NEWS.GNOM.ES
“Our goal for Earth Hour 2011 is to reach new, unprecedented heights of social engagement to fuel the single largest act of global participation the world has ever seen,” said Carey Isom, Senior Vice President of Digital Strategy at Arc Worldwide/Leo Burnett Worldwide. “As a HumanKind communications company dedicated to putting a brand’s purpose at the center of everything we do, we are honored to bring awareness and activation to this very special cause.”
…
Earth Hour is the largest mass participation event in human history and was organized by WWF—an election between Earth and global warming, organized the largest mass participation event in human history.Created by Leo Burnett Sydney in 2007 and carried on by Leo Burnett Chicago, Earth Hour was the first time people of all nationalities, race, ace, gender and religion were able to vote on the future of our planet as one global democracy. Now, just five years later, more than one billion people turned off their lights in celebration of Earth Hour.
[Hmm, more like a billion people don’t HAVE electricity:
1.6 billion people — a quarter of humanity — live without electricity:
Breaking that down further:
| Region | Millions without electricity |
|---|---|
| South Asia | 706 |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 547 |
| East Asia | 224 |
| Other | 101 |
Source: globalissues.org Poverty Facts and Stats]
Dubai, Sharjah Earth Hour saves 249000KW
Yeah but, how much more CO2 did they release organizing the celebration, getting people there, and putting that guy up in the helicopter/airplane/hotair balloon/whatever to get the shot?
To celebrate the worthy cause and encourage participation by residents and businesses in Earth Hour, Dewa, in partnership with Emirates Wildlife Society (EWS) in association with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Emaar and other government departments and local schools and universities and NGOs and private sectors and residents, marked the event with a traditional Arabic heritage village at Emaar’s Burj Plaza in the Downtown district adjacent to the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa.
Over 20 Arabian tents filled with arts and crafts, traditional cooking stations, El Arish hospitality, educational exhibitions, music and many local gifts and souvenirs were enjoyed by over 6,000 people who took part in the fun festivities and Earth Hour celebrations. A family occasion, children were also catered to with their own arts and crafts tents, face-painting, delightful entertainment and a conservation exhibition to educate and inspire their young minds.
Council’s ‘lights out’ weekend branded tokenism (From Oxford Mail)
THIS weekend Oxford City Council will turn off all “non-essential” lights in a bid to tackle global warming.
But Green campaigners say it begs the question: why are lights burning in the first place if they are not needed?
Especially as the authority employs a climate change officer at a cost of £44,000 a year.
THIS weekend Oxford City Council will turn off all “non-essential” lights in a bid to tackle global warming.
But Green campaigners say it begs the question: why are lights burning in the first place if they are not needed?
Especially as the authority employs a climate change officer at a cost of £44,000 a year.
Celebrate good times, climate realists: THIS is what winning looks like
Make no mistake: this is what winning looks like. Of course, most alarmists are never going to come right out and admit that on The Most Important Issue of All Time, they were wrong and we were right. What they’re going to do is just gradually quit talking about it.
YouTube – Earth Hour 2011 Official video
This Earth Hour 2011: 8.30pm, Saturday 26 March, celebrate your action for the planet with the people of world, and add more to your Earth Hour.
YouTube – Earth Hour 2010 Official video
Earth Hour 2010 is set to be the best yet
What Makes Earth Hour Fun? | Real Science
They know the lights will be back on in less than an hour. If they tried Earth Month instead, that would be the end of the global warming religion.
Here is the results of the WUWT poll, as of noon PST, March 27th:
It seems wildly popular to turn on lights, or ignore the whole idea, rather than turn them off, doesn’t it?
However, in one country, North Korea, Earth hour was once again a stunning success:
Night-time satellite photo of North and South Korea. Note the single light for “Dear Leader”. Image from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program
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I switched on my central air conditioning for the first time time this year in SW Florida.
March 28, 2011 at 5:38 am
http://globalwarmingsupporter.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/earthhour-poll-nz.jpg
New Zealanders are thinking less of earth hour. I understand that the response was down 30% from last year as well.
Not surprising as more people are seeing through the AGW baloney.
Cheers
Roger
http://www.rogerfromnewzealand.wordpress.com
Ian,
I agree with what you say, which i think to each his own. Why some are more vigilant against this event, using a religious analogy… It would be kind of like a bunch of folks coming out and saying, we would like everyone in this country to go in the streets on a Saturday night for one hour and celebrate the benefits of Sharia law. Trust me, there would be plenty of folks on the streets.
Earth hour is kind of anti-civilization as Ross M has so eloquently pointed out before.
POWER CONSUMPTION IN EDMONTON WENT UP DURING EARTH HOUR.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Power+spikes+Edmonton+during+Earth+Hour/4512360/story.html
Gotta love Alberta.
P.A.;
I note with embarrassement that BC’s use went down 1.8% during EH. Maybe the gubmint in Victoria turned off its office lights and spotlights to help out? That would have done it …
Typo: I’m so ashamed! “embarrassment”, of course.
\B-{
Brian H says:
March 27, 2011 at 8:22 pm ___________________________________________________________
Brian, We’ve considered a number of ways of introducing electrical power to our place by the Kafue River. Each and every scheme which we have contemplated runs into the same utterly intractable problem, one which is ubiquitous in central Africa. Anything which we installed would be stolen within a day or two, and stolen at the point of an AK-47, thus endangering the lives of those we are trying to help.
Zambians are poverty-stricken. Once you leave the towns and tarred roads behind and go to where the vast majority of Zambians live and see just how they live, you begin to understand why the looting of anything of value is rampant.
This situation is common throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa and is the principal reason why helping those who live there is so difficult.
Hmm I can see the BBC getting a few of the North Korea pics printed up for the office with the tag line =
‘Our kind of democracy ‘
I celebrated “Human Achievement Hour” as their aims better suit my mind set=
‘Green and private conservation are fine. We have no problem with an individual (or group) that wants to sit naked in the dark without heat, clothing, or light. Additionally, we would have no problem with the group holding a pro-green technology rally. That is their choice. But when this group stages a “global election” with the express purpose of influencing “government policies to take action against global warming,” we have every right as individuals to express our vote for the opposite’
Why do we still need both earth hour and 10:10?
Surely they’ve both been so outstandingly successful that the climate disruption bogeyperson has already been scared away. That’s why nobody bothered this time around.
/sarc
Your video clip shows these bozoes burning thousands of candles . Don’t those produce CO2?
I had all my lights ON.
During a lull in the dinner party talk I asked whether folks were aware it was Earth hour this evening. They all looked blank and sheepish, even these noted for their environmental credentials. There were lit candles on the table and local coppiced hardwood crackled in the wood burning stove. The conversation returned to its original subject and Earth hour was forgotten.
I celebrated Human Achievement Hour as the availability of widespread (once cheap) electricity is a major human achievement. As I’ve done during previous Human Achievement Hours, I’ve turned on all of the house lights and simultaneously tested high load appliances. This event is also a good test for the whole house electrical system.
My preference is to have the house brightly lit up at most times as it does make the short winter days much easier to take in this part of the country. No-one mentioned “earth hour” to me in the days leading up to the “event” and the pattern of house lighting in my neighborhood in Kamloops BC seemed no different than it is on any other night. We’ll know we’re winning when the power usage demonstrates a clear square wave increase during Human Achievement Hour.
As another commenter mentioned, it is hard to get out of the habit of turning off lights when one walks out of a room. Couldn’t do much on the outside of the house as I’ve installed lots of 1 W LED lights which are on 24 hours/day and provide a surprising amount of light at night. They’re also a lot more friendly to ones night vision if you use red LED’s.
While the “earth hour” concept may seem to be a meaningless idiotic gesture, there is evidence from psychological studies that getting people to do something minor in support of a cause makes them far more likely to agree to do something far more involved in the future. Thus, events such as “earth hour” are a means of preparing people for the end to continuous electricity as is happening in Britain. I suspect that if you asked a group of people who never participated in “earth hour” to participate in “earth week” (where one turns off electricity for a week), there would be far fewer takers than if one made the same proposal to individuals who had participated in “earth hour”. Two can play at this game of psychological warfare and we should all be promoting Human Achievement Hour.
Am I the only one who noticed the irony / idiocy / hypocrissy in the Phillipines quote?
“As we drove along Ortigas Avenue, I was freakishly disappointed. Why? Because lights were on and it was Earth Hour.”
To Parapharase: As we drove around spewing CO2 and an assortment of actual pollutants into the atmosphere we were disappointed nobody turned off their lights to save the world.
I went walking in the city, looking at the lights and crowds, eating a little food, enjoying the company. Brisbane Australia ignored the great event. Then we went back to the Hotel and turned every light on.
I have lived in PNG and Indonesia. I have seen how the real poor live. Even getting wood the a fire can be a problem.
And the Green/Labor coalition lost Government in the NSW state election, with carbon taxes a BIG issue. Life is good.
“While the ‘earth hour’ concept may seem to be a meaningless idiotic gesture, there is evidence from psychological studies that getting people to do something minor in support of a cause makes them far more likely to agree to do something far more involved in the future.” (Boris Gimbarzevsky, March 28, 2011 at 2:16 am )
Excellent point, doctor. Especially your linking Earth Hour to a specific, very probable plan by governments and power providers to disrupt and reduce services, while increasing revenues and taxes. I would pedantically quibble, though, in that these are still fundamentally meaningless and idiotic gestures, whose intent is not only to achieve a limited aim, like the power disruption in the UK you very astutely point to, but to also break down our resistance to all sorts of new meaningless and idiotic gestures strategically appended to serious and costly policy changes which would be coming down the pipeline at us. That such campaigns are initiated by seemingly independent and popular NGOs, like the WWF, and are often directed at children through compliant and even enthusiastic school boards, may hint at long-term planning.
In such a scenario, your “resistance strategy” of marking a “Human Achievement Hour” is quite brilliant. As things are now, those of us who ignore EH (Earth Hour) are accused of being careless and selfish, and those of us who respond by blazing all the lights, in a show of dissent and contempt, are accused of being petty contrarians, antisocial hoodlums and Gaia-haters. In forming our opposition as Human Achievement Hour (with the lovely acronym, “HAH”! ), we provide a solid rationale to what may seem as needless conspicuous consumption on our part, and we would now have an opportunity to properly present counter-arguments, facts and alternate positions, and to openly challenge existing or planned energy policies, especially the increasing complexity of intrusive regulations and rising cost of energy. The beauty of it is that all non-compliance with EH will be interpreted as celebration of “HAH!” (I l-l-l-l-love it!). And, my brain is already on a subroutine, toying with a few ideas about a logo and other visual presentations!
I set the timer on the stove so I wouldn’t forget, and at precisely 8:30 turned on our porch lights, shutting them off precisely at 9:30, using .08 kwh and costing some $.014. Meanwhile, I had already made sure to shut off any lights I wasn’t using (I am not always as conscientious) inside. The net result, hopefully, was that I didn’t actually spend even a penny on EH, and may have even saved one or two. It was my one small effort to fight the CAGW machine which threatens worlwide economies, health and lives particularly in poorer countries, and which is an affront to science, to truth, and to basic principles of Democracy.
Earth Hour… yes, a moment to remind myself of the comforts of home.
Stoked the wood stove, spent some time on the computer, caught the last half of a nature show on our wide screen tv. Oh yes, the lights… some on, some off, same as always!
‘To the person insinuating that I was a warmist because I didn’t hump my wife under the blanket I suppose I should let you know that we have a healthy sex life even if we didn’t spend Earth Hour banging like rabbits’
Ian, whilst I don’t agree with some of your ideas about the pointless and patronising Earth Hour, your superb comment about you and your wife’s nocturnal activities made me laugh out loud!
This just about sums up the ethos here at WUWT: ideas and theories are discussed with open-ness, frankness, politeness, and (perhaps most importantly) good humour. Compare this with the censorious, aggressive and humourless attitude at ol’ Joe Romm’s site and you realise why the skeptical camp is the more rational place to be.
Hm… thinking of it, I’m in something that looks like half an earth hour all the time. The maximum power here is 30 Ah, and I can’t switch on more than three “green” “economical” wall heaters. If I ever want more, I’ll have to buy an entire transforming station with my own money, then graciously offer it with a curtsey to the state monopoly power company so that they can bill me. Yes, this is somewhere in backwater Europe. Interesting indeed.
What I did for Earth’s Hour? I pinched it!
How much did my protest cost me? I lit up every light in my house. Total 31 bulbs@ur momisugly 100W/bulb OR 3.1KW. They were on for 1hour.
Energy use= 3.1Kw/hr
Cost to generate @ur momisugly $0.038/Kw/hr= 12 cents, 12 onehundredths of a dollar.
Cost to consumer @ur momisugly $0.070/Kw/hr= 22cents
Cost including delivery, regulatory charge, debt retirement and HST – Ontario Clean Energy Benefit(a reduction) @ur momisugly $0.152/Kw/hr= 47cents !!!!
YUP 47 cents for an immigrant Scotsman to piss-off all the Birkenstock wearin’ hairy armpit, tree huggin’ unemployed, tie-dyed Gaiagaga worshipping eco-freak hippies.
There is a God and sometimes he smiles my way!
All the best…. Jeff
What a protest! 18yr old Glenlivet and 47cent electricity… priceless
Right in the middle of Earth hour I was flying to Calgary. Just about to go into Calgary airport and the runway lights went out. We were diverted to Edmonton. It made me happy for 2 reasons.
(1) It exemplified how important electricity is.
(2) We got to spew out even more carbon taking flying to/from Edmonton.
Too bad we were in a little jet instead of a big old 747.
This nauseating AGW scam is now so dead that here in my Latin American country even the mainstream media forgot to mention “Earth Hour” and then I forgot to turn on all lights and machines.
Burned a few old tires to light up the yard.
What? I missed it?