(Update: see the trend graph I found on Earth Hour popularity below.)
Otherwise, we celebrate living in North Korea:
The Earth Hour stunt wants people to turn off their lights from 8:30-9:30PM local time. I plan on having our lights on.
Bjørn Lomborg writes on his Facebook page:
===========================================================
1.3 billion people in the world live without electricity. Celebrating darkness at Earth Hour sends the wrong message.
Unfortunately, Earth Hour tonight is nothing but an ineffective feel-good event. It does little for the climate in terms of reducing CO2 emissions and distracts us from the real problems and solutions — especially giving light to those in the darkness.
Read my new column in USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/03/27/bjorn-lomborg-earth-hour-electricity-column/6975265/
And watch a 2-minute video by the Copenhagen Consensus Center: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SVVADAX_cU
Lomborg: Earth Hour just a feel-good campaign
Instead, give light to the 1.3 billion people who still live without electricity.
===========================================================
UPDATE: It seems sanity is starting to take hold and the global interest in Earth hour is falling off significantly. Here is the Alexa Internet traffic plot for this year plus 2013 and 2012. I’ve added the trend arrow aligned with the peaks of the Earth Hour events over those three years.
Source: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/earthhour.org
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Hugh Winkler says:March 29, 2014 at 3:53 pm
“See, the claim to legitimacy of wattsupwiththat is that it’s the place you go to find real inquiry and lucid analysis countering the groupthink. So it’s disappointing when it tales on the character, from time to time, of a grumpy all-purpose anti-green trolling operation.”
This isn’t about wattsupwiththat. It about green energy and CAGW advocates killing people to make themselves feel good. Are you trying to make yourself feel good?
For a few years now, on the day of Earth Hour, I burn the year’s accumulation of old documents … don’t bother with the shredder. There is a lot of snow this year but the squirrels were out to entertain the dogs. As the coals of the fire glowed outside, I missed turning on the lights as I was part way through watching Gravity for the first time, but I did turn on the gas fireplace as I was somewhat chilled. The occasion got me outside I guess on a nice day before the last day of the deep freeze, for the season … tomorrow. Maybe next year I’ll turn on all my LED bulbs but now its time to set up to catch rain water, fight pocket gophers with landscaping, and over-seed with multiple fescue (eco-grass) and dutch white clover … and cut down a couple trees …
The only thing wrong with our modern conveniences is ingratitude. It’s easy to take it all for granted.
I must admit: I love candlelight. It is beautiful and Christmas-y. Dangerous, if you’re not careful, though. Even today people burn their houses down by being inexcusably stupid with their candles.
But with LED lighting, even by “green” standards, we don’t need Earth Hour or anything like it.
Oh, and I submit that the premature adoption of CFLs is worse for the environment than keeping incandescent lights and waiting for LEDs.
I am fully and commitedly anti-Green. I don’t need to be signed up for any leftist feel-good, religious movement, thank you.
I certainly am in support of recycling, reducing and reusing. If something can be reused, why not? I always donate my old items in good condition. This is actually doing “something” that helps others, but I chose to do it because I want to. No one should be forced into following some mantra in order to somehow gain self-importance and appease the overlords.
That’s the difference: the intent. Helping others through individual initiative and tending to your own problems so others aren’t burdened by you is called humanity and individualism. Ordering others to offer up figurative sacrifices while turning a blind eye to the real issues, all to keep their power validated? Hmmmm…seems almost anti-humanist and despotic.
Who am I kidding? It IS! 😀 Eff the left, indeed!
Every light in and out of the house and garage is blazing brightly, here in the Socialist Workers Paradise of Seattle! I’m hacking into the NSA satellites right now, so I can get a commemorative picture of myself waving from the front deck…..
It’s a little bit early to determine much, but it appears that California’s total demand INCREASED at the start of “Earth Hour”. We are almost 20 minutes into the “hour” at this time.
http://www.caiso.com/Pages/TodaysOutlook.aspx#SupplyandDemand
Mac the Knife:
See if you can get one of me. I’m shining my flashlight across Lake Washington for ya! 🙂
I’m keeping it lit up in Bellevue, too!
Oh, wow, man. Like — laugh — out — loud — grrrreeeeenn energy (a.k.a. windmills) could have made this Grateful Dead concert happen. What have you been SMOKIN’, man? Oooh, yeah. I’m sure they ALL rode their bicycles to the concert, too. Mm, hm. You Envirocult guys are soooo funny!
Ah say, uuh, hey, hey, hey-eeee-ey-eeee-eeeey!
When the wind stops blowin,” mmm, hmmm,
I say-hey-hey-hey-heeeeeey, when the wind stops blowin’…..
what — happens — to — yo — amp?
Oh, wo-wo-woooOOOoooOOOoooooh,
WHAT HAPPENS TO YO AMP, dude?
#(:))
“Ripple” — Grateful Dead
Bumper sticker for Holy Cars: HYPOCRITES ARE 2 PEOPLE
(yeah, I made it up — heh)
GO, BIG COAL (AND NUCLEAR)! Thanks to you
Tom Bodette and the rest of us can say:
“We’ll leave the light on for ya.”
Go, HGW whatever whatever and MAC! #(:))
Lights on up here in this neck of the woods of Environaziland, too!
Go, HYDROPOWER!
HGW xx/7 says:
March 29, 2014 at 8:57 pm
Gotcha, HGW xx/7 !
Dang! Their on to me HGW xx/7…… but ‘no worries’, Mate. I accessed the NSA satellites by routing through algores url (5th shakra.nyet). Gotta go ‘net dark’ for a bit, ’till the heat is off.
Mac
PS: Your flashlight could use some new D cells.
I think that most people are getting more aware of addressing environmental issues. One lady I know said what more do you expect us to do? We do try to save on electricity, we recycle, use low voltage globes. Use grey water, install rain water tanks to supplement tap water. Now you want me to spend thousands on solar panels and non of this will change the weather. Now you have banned burning wood in winter and recommend using electricity and oil for heating. I try to buy free range products as I don’t like the thought of caged hens, penned pigs or feedlot cattle.
I compost and mulsch and still use my car with unleaded petrol. I can’t cycle to do my shopping, as I am 81 years old. How Greener do you want me to get! Oh, I don’t use insecticides or herbicides. Maybe I should die soon to lower this worlds population?
PS And she smoked tooo?
An-tho-ny, I posted my comment before I saw that a certain frightened, to-be-pitied-not-rebuked, man is hanging out here. I wasn’t trying to get him started… . Oh, boy. Here we go. “Wind power is really, really, efficient and neato, neato, neato. Nuclear power is super-dooper-horrible.” I’m NOT GOING THERE on this thread.
Go, HGW whatever whatever and MAC! #(:))
Lights on up here in this neck of the woods of Environah-z1land, too!
Go, HYDROPOWER!
Hey electricity is there to use if you are willing to pay for it, use as much as you can afford. Usually companies that supply a service encourage you to use more of their product, but BC Hydro for some reason wants us to use less of their product.(((( Shakin ma head))). I expect that it is because they can export the excess at a profit.
Next up comes Earth Day, on April 22. Earth Day used to address some actual environmental issues, but has become a melange of feel-good greenie-weenie nonsense mostly. Notice the t-shirt they have, with the cute polar bear half-way up a wind turbine, which itself is floating on an iceberg. Not sure where they were going with that.
I agree with Hydro power, look at Egypt when they put in the Aswan dam and their lake Nasser hydro system. But in Australia we don’t really have the water power to do this. I suppose one has to consider the demography of a nation too. Their population dispersal. Most of ours in Oz are around the coastal regions, as we go inland and the outback the population is far less.
Anyway turning off lights has no affect on the weather.
“bushbunny says:
March 29, 2014 at 9:49 pm”
I can see troubles with hydro power from Aswan in the future. Ethiopia is building the biggest hydro dam project in Africa. It’s two or three times larger than Aswan, with a reservoir 2 or 3 times the volume of Lake Tana. All downstream cuntries who source water from the Nile, which is fed by the Blue Nile, are a bit worried that there won’t be enough water for power and irrigation. Having seens the impact of another hydro project in Ethiopa near Tis Issat, where 70-80% of water is diveted to a hydro plant, I can well believe their concerns.
“Anyway turning off lights has no affect on the weather.” Bush Bunny at 9:49pm.
Precisely and powerfully put, Ms. Bunny!
Weather. That is ALL that the “Fight Climate Change!” propaganda is about. Hyping weather. And, since most of those pumping out the propaganda know it isn’t true, “green” energy promoters are mainly just garden variety crooks.
Enviroprofiteering in the name of “Saving the Planet.” Disgusting.
Dear Bush Bunny,
I’m sorry that no one is responding to your many worthy comments above. I know what a bummer that can be, believe me. Hang in there. People are just busy, or sleeping, or… just duds at communicating!
Take care, “down there,”
Janice
P.S. I do realize that hydropower is uniquely available in NW Washington State and simply not a viable option in most of the rest of the world. Glad to know that you like it, per se, though! (smile) I hope that sick doggie is completely well, now. It was on the mend about a month ago… .
Oh, Paaaaatrick…. (wry smile)… I — am — still — praying…. about you know what.
DO let me know if anything develops… . Okay?
J.
Janice Moore says:
March 29, 2014 at 9:21 pm
Go, HGW whatever whatever and MAC! #(:))
Hey there, Sweet Pea!
Whew… that was a close one!
Is it pouring rain, up where you are? We are nearly certain to record the wettest March evah, for the Seattle area in recorded history. That’s just a bit comical, given mid-january, the enviro-AGW-wecaresoooomuch folks around here were starting to whine about how unusually dry it was! Looks like ‘the drought is broken’…. and then some! It’s been raining steady here most of the evening (as it has been for the last 2 months), just letting up in the last half hour. I have an inch of more of standing water on the lawn and the soils are completely saturated. I dread to think of the compound catastrophes that will occur, should we get a ‘shaker’ of an earthquake….. Best not to dwell on that!
In keeping with the ‘flooding’ theme, I think a little Stevie Ray Vaughn is in order on this sodden Saturday night: Texas Flood Patch this into the main amplifier, turn the sub woofers on, and set the volume control to +11 on the Richter scale! Enjoy!
http://youtu.be/tWLw7nozO_U
Hi yarall, thanks for compliments. I would worry about the Aswan dam but it is the largest man made lake I believe in Africa, i.e. Lake Nasser. I didn’t think Ethiopia had enough money to erect a bigger hydro system. You see the Brits refused to help Egypt and the Russians took over the cost. The thing about Aswan is that if it were to breach it would flood most of Egypt being a thin thread of land either side of the Nile and desert each side. I’ve been there before the Aswan was built and before the wars there but after the problem with the Suiz canal embargo by Gen.Nasser. Who is financing theirs I wonder. I’ll check.
Dang…. looks like we have to trip for a drill bit…aka massive CAT diesel engines running at full throtle all night long in the interest of drilling oil wells in western Canada…happy Earth-Day all you eco-menatlists!!!!…all the best from the beautiful foothills of Alberta in western Canada. !!! 🙂
The World bank is financing it with the African Development bank. But its not just the Nile the Congolese are into more dams too. There is international debate whether this will benefit such as small rural country. Anyway, we’ll see, eh?
@bushbunny
…well i wanna agree with you :)…but them young minds are like sponges…..My neighbors lil boy & girl seem to be budding ecomematalists in training :)…they gave me hell the other day for idling my superduty Ford…i triied to explain to them the battery needed charging but i have a real worry about what these good lil childrens have to hear in the classroom from the leftwing nutjob teachers & such. All the best from the beautiful foothills of Alberta Canada.
“bushbunny says:
March 29, 2014 at 10:46 pm”
I don’t know who’s funding the project. I know the last time I was in Addis Ababa most of the hotels were full of geologists, engineers, construction workers, miners and the likes swarming all of the country searching for resources. Talked to several about what they were doing.
I am now told I would not recognise Addis Ababa with all the construction going on. Thing is, the economy isn’t really sturdy enough IMO to support the 7-8million in the city, let alone the 70-75million in the country. With rampant inflation, most people barely make enough to eat on a daily basis. Teff, the basic grain, has increased several 100% since 2007. So, someone is making lots of money, sadly, it’s not those who really need it.