Earth Hour This Saturday Is a Colossal Waste of Time and Energy.
Bjorn Lomborg
-No Lights to Turn Off-
On the evening of March 23, 1.3 billion people will go without light for the rest of the night—just like every other night of the year. With no access to electricity, darkness after sunset is a constant reality for these people.
See Copenhagen Consensus Center’s YouTube video http://youtu.be/9SVVADAX_cU with a different message for Earth Hour.
Earth Hour teaches us that tackling global warming is easy. Yet, by switching off the lights, all we are doing is making it harder to see.
Electricity has been a boon for humanity. And the cozy candles that many participants will light, which seem so natural and environmentally friendly, are still fossil fuels—and almost 100 times less efficient than incandescent light bulbs.
Read the full commentary on Slate . Translations in 6 languages are distributed worldwide and available at Project Syndicate http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/earth-hour-s-counterproductive-symbolism-by-bj-rn-lomborg
-Electric Cars Have A Dirty Little Secret-
Is the electric car green? Not really.
It easily emits more CO2 than a gasoline car, because its production (especially the battery) is so energy-intensive.
Even in an optimistic scenario, the electric car barely differ from conventional cars as measured by their carbon emissions. Read the full op-ed in Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324128504578346913994914472.html
-“Zero emissions” vehicles-
Bjorn Lomborg shows how electric cars are anything but “zero emission”. Electric cars are hugely carbon intensive to manufacture. Their driving distance is extremely short, so most consumers have not been interested in purchasing them (even with a generous tax credits of up to $7500). Lomborg joined Jenna Lee at Happening now to elaborate on the WSJ piece, see the interview on Fox News here http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/happening-now/index.html?playlist_id=86919&intcmp=features http://video.foxnews.com/v/2223634871001/zero-emissions-not-so-fast/?playlist_id=86919
He also explained the environmental impacts of electric cars to Melissa Francis on FoxBusiness http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/money-with-melissa-francis/index.html #http://video.foxnews.com/v/2226612790001/the-dirty-little-secret-behind-electric-cars/?playlist_id=1671716501001
-Cost of Feel-Good Energy-
In 2012 Germans paid €20 billion for green energy that otherwise could have been produced for about €3 billion. The extra cost is because of green subsidies that will have almost no effect on Global Warming even a 100 years from now. If all that money was spent on energy research instead, Germany would actually help solve Global Warming.
Lomborg’s article is listed as “Most important this week” in “Der Spiegel” in Germany behind paywall https://magazin.spiegel.de/reader/index_SP.html#j=2013&h=12&a=91568151
Snow Shut Down Congress
Lomborg was scheduled to testify for the US Congress on “How we need to think about global warming and what we need to do”, along with Dr. Judith Curry from Georgia Tech and Dr. William Chameides of Duke University — but ironically Congress was shut down because of a snowstorm that failed to materialize.
It was a bit puzzling for a Scandinavian native – we’re used to dealing with a lot of snow! The hearing has been re-scheduled for April 25, and in the meantime you can read his summary here http://lomborg.com/sites/default/files/Congress%20testimony%20March%202013.pdf
-Propping EU permits?-
The European Union should not approve a proposal to boost the price of carbon permits.
“The carbon price is low because we have had a big economic crisis so actually we are doing what the EU has promised to do, which is cutting the carbon emissions by 20 percent,” Lomborg said. “Wanting a higher carbon price is wanting to cut more than 20 percent. It is just pushing the policy goal which seems a little bit arbitrary at best.”
Read the full Reuters interview where Lomborg points to smarter solutions. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/03/14/us-eu-carbon-lomborg-idUKBRE92D1DB20130314
-Australian Climate Damage-
When it comes to property damage in Australia, the climate has not produced an “angry summer”, but clearly this point is a thorn in the side of the Australian Climate Commission http://climatecommission.gov.au/media-releases/correction-misrepresentation-the-angry-summer you aren’t allowed to make that point.
A graph produced by two Australian commentators http://theconversation.edu.au/weighing-the-toll-of-our-angry-summer-against-climate-change-12793 shows this is clearly not the case. The graph uses peer-reviewed data that reflects changes in dwelling numbers and value, and an adjustment in the building code.
Follow Bjorn on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bjornlomborg and read this and other commentary.
No thanks. Because of the high costs, my lights & heat are already turned down as far as reasonably possible. My central heat is already off, even in mid-winter, except at nite.
I will turn on EVERYTHING all night.
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t was a bit puzzling for a Scandinavian native – we’re used to dealing with a lot of snow!
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Yeah, but you must not have ever seen DCers deal w/alittle snow….
From the archives-a not so moldy oldie:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/03/27/earth-hour-in-north-korea-a-stunning-success/
That is our future if the greenies have their way..
This Saturday? March 23?
Guess it has been a year since I turned on all the lights in the house, baked something in the real oven (not microwave) even if I didn’t need to, turned on both TVs, and opened/closed the refrigerator & freezer doors for no particular reason. My, how time flies.
I expect Saturday will also be a good day to test-run my gasoline-powered generator, though I’ll have to do that during daylight.
Ahhh, the sacrifices I make for Gerbil Worming! ;-p
I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about CO2, but I think electric cars are the bomb. They are faster, smoother and quieter than IC powered cars and there are no (real) emissions (e.g. CO, NOX, SOX, HC), particularly at the local level. Sure, right now they are more expensive and have limited range, but that gets better every year. A colleague just got a new Tesla and that thing rocks (of course, it should for $100K).
Earth Hour can also have a reverse effect.
Switching off the lights is a good way to teach kids what enviro loons, like Hansen, would love their future to look like.
Lance Davis: That you like electric cars is nice. Certainly you should have that choice — but do i have a choice about subsidizing your purchase? I don’t think so.
“A colleague just got a new Tesla …”
Did you have to drive round to his house to see it or can it make it to yours?
(Sorry, couldn’t resist 🙂 )
“but I think electric cars are the bomb”
I think that’s a bit unfair, the lithium might burn violently but does not explode like gasoline vapor. However, the idea that a $100k Tesla is good for the environment needs to addressed. Sure, part of the markup is the extra engineering and luxury cost which will help fund cheaper electric cars in the future. But the rest of the expense is due to higher production costs and those are mainly due to higher use of energy. Energy is money, and anytime you see a higher price for alternatives like electric cars, you can chalk it up to the extra energy needed to provide their inputs.
Go back to your colleague in about 5 years and find out how much money he “saves” driving his electric car. The battery capacity and efficiency will have gone down from merely bad to terrible.
Since toilet paper manufacturers have now learned how to roll air inside the paper roll I guess economy might be necessary.
Wondering if Earth Hour is going to lead to another spike in fires due to candles being knocked over? Probably an offence to report such things.
Paul, thanks for the link to Ross McKitrick’s excellent essay, which I reread each year about this time. Here’s the link again for those who may have missed it:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/03/17/earth-hour-a-dissent/
Here in Australia, blogger Tim Blair runs an Earth Hour competition each year for who can use the most energy at home – or anywhere else – during that hour. There are always awesome entries. People who own hotted-up cars have a distinct advantage.
Al Gore could win with daylight second if he entered, but for some reason he has forgone the opportunity so far.
Earth Day again?
Hmmm… let me see… where is my anti-aircraft spotlight…
Time for The Don Meredeth version of “Turn Out The Lights – The Party’s Over”
Neither here nor there, but it’s quite cool where I am.
http://openweathermap.org/maps
I live just up the (Dixie) road from YYZ and remember watching a wee storm or two passing from north to south via BUF doppler. Talk about lights out.
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=buffalo+doppler+radar+august+2005+toronto+air+france&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&ved=0CFQQFjAF&url=https%3A%2F%2Fams.confex.com%2Fams%2Fpdfpapers%2F123529.pdf&ei=ucNIUeOJEMSJ2gWNvIDYDw&usg=AFQjCNEecO0I54alZVK5iRcEk5kxyTPxdQ&bvm=bv.43828540,d.b2U
eric1skeptic says:
March 21, 2013 at 4:36 pm
Go back to your colleague in about 5 years and find out how much money he “saves” driving his electric car. The battery capacity and efficiency will have gone down from merely bad to terrible.
——————————————————————————————————-
He probably won’t have it in 5 years – by that time he will have had it responsibly recycled* (using energy) and be driving the latest, even more eco friendly version (newly built using even more energy), also with an expected lifespan of 5 years or so.
And so the cycle will continue.
IBD’s short history of Earth Hour.
OK I moved from the UK to Ontario, the power here is referred to as “hydro” I suspect quit a lot of locals dont know why !! so on earth hour do they turn down the generators that take days to spin down, of course not they turn down the hyrdro stations for an hour! says it all for me!
Actually, a better day to celebrate would be March 29 – it will be the 72nd birthday of James Edward Hansen.
We should all burn one of those special 72-hour emergency survival candles in his honor.
So if you see a 3-day glow from my house, it’s just my shrine to that wondrous gas, CO2.
Personally, I won’t be switching off any lights this weekend. I will be turning up the central heating though, since freezing tempratures and snow are forecast for many parts of the the U.K., including my region.
“…and almost 100 times less efficient than incandescent light bulbs.”
— The following comment is almost a complete waste of time, but I can’t stop myself and you seem committed to read on. Candles can be 1/100th as efficient as light bulbs, and light bulbs can be 100 times MORE efficient than candles, but candles can’t be 100 times less efficient than light bulbs. Mathematically that makes no sense.
I believe you were warned up front.
All the lights will be on and I’ll crank up the heat with the windows open.
Yeah. I celebrate earth hour brightly!
Our local shopping centre was giving out ‘earth hour’ bags which have CFL light bulbs in them.
two points:
– we’re not allowed to buy incandescent bulbs anyway
– isn’t the whole point of Earth Hour *not* to use your lights?
I will be studiously ignoring the environmental claptrap, just like 99,999% of all other inhabitants of Earth. I do not know of a single person who has ever participated in this rubbish.
I’m going to bake some cookies…… Earth hour treats..:)
I will take my V16 racing boat out to Dead Mans Point and turn off the lighthouse for an hour.
I just feel we should all do what we can…