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.
Hah! This year we’re not even going to break 40F for Earth Hour in upstate New York. Should I turn off my heat for an hour just to satisfy the narcissistic whims of some Climate Clowns like Mann? No thanks.
@brc Sadly, I participated in this nonsense back in 2008. Thankfully, that was also the year where I finally saw how much garbage was behind the CAGW fear-mongering campaign. Anthony’s site has done a world of good for me, and hopefully for plenty of others.
Well I’m betting that the most complete compliance with the Earth Hour of lights out, for the good of the planet, will be demonstrated by the enthusiastic environmental folks of the DPRK.
Those folks led the world every year; there simply is no competition.
The Cyprus banking system is about to go under for want of €5 Billion. It may take the Eurozone with it, damage global trade, and cause a run on banks throught Europe. Oh, and may damage the US financial system as well.
€17 Billion dumped down a Green Rat Hole, while the financial system teeters on collapse due to being €5 Billion short. Gee, I wonder if that €17 Billion could have been better used somewhere else…
Oh, and since Cyprus has a few €Billion of Arab and Russian and Russian Mafia money in it, and they “settle scores”, and the EU Central Planners are planning to “shake them down” for a few €Billion it’s likely this will result in all sorts of “interesting accidents”. It also has Putin negotiating for the oil around Cyprus and maybe a base snuggled up to the UK bases. All in the middle of the Middle East Powder Keg.
But I’m sure windmills and feel-good-not-making-power solar in Germany was worth more than destablizing a tense place and starting Blood Feuds between the Old USSR and the EU…
Have the politicians of the West all gone “barking mad”? We’ve got a potential melt down of the Eurozone financial system, and a rekindle of the Cold War divides, seasoned with P.O.’s Arabs (where between Russia and the Arabs, they kind of control the central heat and gas for the EU…) all becuase the amount needed to keep the depositors in Cypriot banks “whole” and not take their savings accounts and checking accounts, is “too much” at less than squandered on green fantasies.
That is’t just wrong; that’s adlepated wrong.
I just nearly had a tea, screen and keyboard moment with
Myron Mesecke says:
March 21, 2013 at 2:08 pm
I will only turn off the lights if it looks like my wife is in the mood.
And as for Earth hour I’ve missed all the previous ones so I think I’ll give this one a miss as well, I don’t want to spoil my winning streak do I.
James Bull
What I find really annoying is that hybrid cars with say a ten mile range at 30mph on electric could contribute enormously to the environment of cities from the exhaust reduction benefits but. Instead we are spending huge amounts of money on a ridiculous and probably unachievable objective based on science that by any realistic standards is sub junk accuracy.
Don’t turn off the lights?
It seems that Britain is about to do just that. After all with all those wind generators and that planet warming at an incredible rate we don’t need all those nasty power stations so lets cut generating capacity by 10% for starters. The CEOs of power generating companies are warning that this might not be a good idea:
Meanwhile, back in the real world the Met Office is issuing warnings for snow and blizzard conditions for Northern England and Scotland in particular plus lots more “drought” in the South West:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21885817
Mmnnn. I wonder if the politicians have got the right plan. We shall see, albeit with candles…
The UK, for once, is ahead of the curve. Our forward-thinking Government is still insisting that all our older and less profitable power stations are to be closed down in a couple of years, thus initiating an indefinite series of randomly timed “Earth Hours”, “Earth Days” etc. all through the year.
Another snowy day here. I’m using energy while I’m allowed to. I wonder: how many people could warm their hands at a blazing Palace of Westminster?
The Denver area is looking at 6 – 12 inches of snow on Saturday. Some lights will go out on their own. Most will be replaced by snow blowers!
Now you know what it is like to live in most of Africa. They have an Earth Day 24/7/365 and mostly die as a result.
Stupid environmentalists!
Lomberg: “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.”
That’s a pretty good metaphore for climate alarmism and their response to criticism: close your eye’s ; fingers in ears and shout ” I can’t hear you” as loud as possible.
When we try to shine a light on malfaisance of climate scientists, they respond by trying to get everyone to turn off the lights.
Pretty symbolic.
“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.”
Perhaps they could not stand the irony of having to discuss “global warming” during a snow storm. Much better wait until the middle of summer and let some fraud like Hansen come in and fiddle with the air-con.
Around 75% of Africans have no choice but to participate in Earth Hour – night after night, year after year. Tell them that co2 is a pollutant so they should continue without electricity as many don’t have expensive solar panels or windmills.
Here is the correct url for my last comment.
http://go.worldbank.org/8VI6E7MRU0
Well, it is a quasi-religious cult, so it’s all about symbolism and a type of religious emotionalism with them. Reality has nothing to do with it. Their goal all along has seemingly been to drag humanity back into the Dark Ages, and with their “Zero Hour” (“Earth Hour” being nothing but a lie, one of the many they tell), they get to do that in a very symbolic way.
It’s too bad Lomborg hasn’t bothered to further educate himself about climate. With cooling likely in the coming decades, the further damage to humanity, and especially the poor from Warmism could be catastrophic.
This will be an interesting place to study at the time of Earth Hour, for those of us in the UK and others interested in watching a power generation system as demand starts to approach reducing capacity.
http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/index.php
Wow! Burning books to light the darkness! A powerful image.
About toilet paper, it is a precious commodity aboard a submarine on extended patrol. We discussed conservation efforts. A humorous favorite, that depended on effective hand hygiene, folded one sheet twice into a square with a common corner and pulled a 1/4-inch piece out of that common corner making a small hole in the center of the square, through which a finger is inserted …
This tale, like TMI-2, is dying of Too Much Information.
wsj link doesn’t appear to work. found this via google.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324128504578346913994914472.html
Last month we had a power outage. It lasted for almost 3 hours. It’s especially annoying because in my neighborhood all of the utilities are underground, so it was not a distribution problem. Most neighborhoods around me got power within 1/2 hour but we had to wait.
Living in a winter climate, it only takes a short time in February without power before you realize why you need power. The chill began slowly at first, but at a seemingly accelerating rate the house began to cool. And this is a heavily insulated house with all triple-glazed windows. The only thing that saved us from dropping too cold was that the entire basement floor is a heated slab. There was enough heat that even when the power came back the floor was noticeably warm. I realized that I couldn’t even turn the natural gas fireplace on, since it requires power to switch on the valve and pretty much has to have the circulation fan running to even heat anything.
We dug out an old battery-operated radio, which served to tell us that there was a power failure in my neighborhood. Yay. No HDTV, no discs to watch, only a half hour battery life on my laptop (I need to replace that battery!) and no internet even if I had power. Heck, even the cell towers in the vicinity were off for a while. Since my phone comes through the Cable system instead of the old-school phone lines, it had no power, and even if it had been live all my phones are cordless, so no power to the base.
Soon it became obvious. Pretty much everything we need to entertain ourselves or get any work done requires power. And failures in this area are rare enough that the lesson was relatively new. We had little problem with light, I have been something of a collector of white-LED flashlights, from tiny to large, and have a bag full of those hand-powered ones. So it was possible to see, but I’d sure hate to have that happen again.
There is NO POSSIBLE WAY I would voluntarily give up the magic of electricity, not even for an hour, not even it was for a cause that I didn’t think was ridiculous. To me electricity is the very symbol of our lifestyle, our civilization. To me, the desire to turn off the lights in a misguided attempt to celebrate the Earth or whatever they think they’re doing is a sign of mental illness, a desire to tear down everything we’ve built up. There are not enough caves in the world, so even living in caves is out. Take down our civilization and we’re reduced to living in teepees or igloos and becoming hunter-gatherers like the previous societies that occupied this land. That’s so not me.
So, as every year, I will celebrate Enlightenment Hour by ensuring that every light in this house is burning brightly for all to see. I will bake cookies so the oven is drawing power, and I’m pretty sure my laundry needs to be done. I won’t truly be satisfied unless the meter is spinning like a fan motor.
(PS. The generator I bought is capable of powering the furnace and a few other essentials for a day or so… more if I need to siphon gas from one of the cars… and I guarantee it’s a LOT less efficient than a generating station)
Jeff Glassman says:
March 21, 2013 at 3:17 pm
It’s time to turn out the lights on Dr. Lomborg.
==============
Can’t agree. By speaking the AGW language Lomborg is much more likely to get AGW believers to listen.
From a believers point of view, Lomborg doesn’t challenge them to change their beliefs, rather to recognize that there are better solutions. This is a much easier sell than trying to change beliefs.
From a skeptical point of view, Lomborg may well be wrong about AGW. However, the message he is promoting isn’t that we should believe in AGW. Rather, that there are much more cost effective solutions to AGW than we are currently following.
This point of view makes perfect sense to me. Rather than try and raise the cost of fossil fuels so that everyone stops using them (which is impossible because there is no economically viable alternative – stopping fossil fuels is equivalent to economic ruin) the better solution is to find lower cost alternatives. Once there are lower cost alternatives, people automatically switch to save money, without the government having to pass laws to try and make people switch.
This point of view will not prove popular with the wealthy that collect subsidies and kickback a portion to lawmakers in the form of political contributions. Similarly, those lawmakers that rely on the kickbacks will fight any end to the subsidies, wrapping themselves in the cloth of “saving the earth”. Eventually, as electricity prices rise out of sight, the worm will turn.
What’s this authors bigotry about electric cars? They are not bought by greenies. Never have, never will. Educated nationalists bothered about their countries balance of payments, airline pilots, lawyers, architects and university Dons are the statistics in this market.
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The Li cells are mostly (sooted) aluminium and copper sheet with a plastic separator. Which is the bulk of the cell. The fluid inside is chemically similar to coke and brandy with a lithium infusion. Either housed in a plastic bag or box. The price of these things at $1.12/WH to the man in the street is not that much more than their material value. Admittedly, the particular kind of cells chosen by the manufacturers are not the most long lasting but they are bounds ahead of the Li-Co garbage they use on your laptop and Boeing 787. Cars expect -30% range loss in a decade/100K miles.
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Youtube shows owners driving their cars at 4.5 miles per KWH. My (UK) car costs six times more in fuel alone, plus, simple to service; few consumables. You can buy a Nissan Leaf <£18K, same price as an equivalent diesel and by driving 60K miles, the UK cost saving is not only recouped, it's paid for. As a second car driven on regular use, its an absolute no-brainer!
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Lastly, turning off street lights for an hour will make no difference to the nations electric consumption because they take hours to run up just for the kettles to start when the adverts come on between Coronation Street! Would be nice if the skies were clear though: Telescope would be out ready.
Again:
Light represent life, hope and knowledge …
… and we are supposed to turn it off …!
[facepalm]
None of the fox links work.
Damn! Why did clean my self-cleaning oven last week! That draws tons of power. However, this Saturday, remaining Christmas lights outside will be on, as will the dishwasher, washer, dryer, and every appliance that we can bear to have running (our two vacuum cleaners for the duration might be a bit much). Cookies will be baked and the house cleaned using all the mod. cons. to celebrate the Earth Enlightenment Hour!
(Must protect fellow rate payers from possible payments to New York State of Quebec to take Ontario’s surplus energy from our massively inefficient grid.)
To Mike:
You wrote: “Who would want a climate scientist or environut near them when the lights go out, it would be just an excuse for them to produce a hockey stick….”
Yes! But in the darkness, you can take the hockey stick away from them and bash them with it,
hopefully pounding some sense into their thick skull(s)!