Saturday 28th March is “Earth Hour” – a time to sit in the dark and appreciate the benefits of our cheap reliable hydrocarbon-energy.
[Like these candles, for example, from the WWF sponsored Earth Hour home page – Anthony]
Guest essay by Viv Forbes
We should spend Earth Hour giving thanks for warmth.
Just thirteen thousand years ago, Earth was in the grip of a deathly ice age. Sea levels were indeed much lower but much of the land surface was covered by thick sheets of ice. Life struggled to survive and many species were extinguished by the sterile suffocating ice.
Without any help from humans, Earth escaped from the ice. And as the oceans warmed they expelled part of their dissolved carbon dioxide which nurtured an enormous increase in plant and animal life.
But the ice still lurks near the poles, and Earth has suffered several cold relapses. The most recent “Little Ice Age” just released its icy grip about 150 years ago.
The modern warming phase ceased around the turn of this century – there are teenagers today who have never lived in a phase of rising global temperatures. And our sun is showing disturbing signs of reduced activity, which may presage a new cooling phase.
Earth is on a climate see-saw between a warm green globe and a frozen white wilderness. Unless you are a penguin or a polar bear, you should spend Earth Hour celebrating today’s warmth and giving thanks for our cheap, abundant hydro-carbon fuels which will help humans to survive any return of Global Cooling.
Earth Hour – we need to celebrate Coal not Candles:
http://carbon-sense.com/2012/03/31/earth-hour/
[Note: Personally, I plan to turn on all my lights tonight, meanwhile, the Dark-Earthers are asking for your opinion about it, see below and click if you wish to add your opinion. There’s lots of opportunity for write-in answers – Anthony]
Switching off the lights in France would raise concerns for our national power company “Electricité de France” since 78 p.c. of the power here is made by nuclear plants.
The nuclear power plants are not so easy to stop and start as the coal or fuel powered plants. They are more reliable to supply their electric power steadily
Personally, as an amateur astronomer, I prefer a dark earth for obvious reasons. We can have have a reasonable compromise with exterior down lighting technology that reduces light “pollution” upwards and outwards into the sky.
But hey, that is just me.
You must get really annoyed when the moon is out?
Presumptuous nonsense from some snotty anonymous drive by? I should not even bother to respond, but I will anyway against my better judgement.
No, I don’t get annoyed at the moon. How stupid would that be? To get annoyed at the moon? The moon is just as beautiful as all other celestial objects. One can always wait for a moonless night or observe at those times during the night when it is not and issue trying to see other objects in space.
I may howl at it now and then. But that is a completely separate issue.
Perhaps that’s how North Korea does its stealth prosperity?
I’m with you, David. I live in the country and enjoy the dark, star filled sky. Many lights are unnecessary .
In 1977 New York City had a ‘all lights out’ night.
I was there in the middle of the celebrations. Many of my neighbors celebrated by looting all the stores and burning down half of our neighborhood.
Now that is an earth hour to remember!
You must live in a very vibrant neighbourhood
If the next ice age does not come soon, we need advanced nuclear power to survive. By that time hydrocarbon fuels shall be neither abundant nor cheap, should they be not manufactured using other energy sources.
Ha ha:
So true.
Each evening the sun sets in five billion places
Seen by ten billion eyes set in five billion faces
Then they close in a daze and wait for the dawning
But the daylight and sunrise are brighter in our eyes,
Where night cannot devour golden solar power
Once we were damned now I guess we are angels
For we passed though the dark and avoided the dangers
Then I awoke with a start to startling changes
All the tension is ended, the sentence suspended
And darkness now sparkles and gleams
And it all seems larger than life to me
I find it rather hard rather hard to believe
So I stand as the sound goes straight through my body,
I’m so bloated up, happy, and I throw things around me.
And I’m growing in stages (have been for ages)
Just singing and floating and free
Dum de dum dum
Its a heavenly pop hit
If anyone wants it.
As my mother-in law (Oma) used to say about Beaver College an all girls college in Phila., PA:
“Lights out at 10:00, candles out at 11:00”
They eventually changed the name of that College.
I went to Wharton grad school in Philadelphia.
I always wondered why I heard this song when I passed BC. Now I know.
Oh, I see how this video relates to Earth Hour, it is in black and white, therefore, saves electricity.
earth hour: a return to the stone age
…and a return to the stone-hand-fortnight system of measurement.
I guess this is the culmination of the Glastonbury festival where a productive farm is turned it a muddy quagmire with a massive amount of noise and the organisers consider themselves to be “green”
the true purpose of earth hour:
http://oi60.tinypic.com/v324vl.jpg
Yes, a “movement”. And by another word…sh!t.
My contribution to earth hour survey
https://earthhour.typeform.com/to/yP7nZp
5 – Before you visited the website, what did you think Earth Hour represented?
• Solidarity with low carbon economy’s
7 – Do you think climate change affects you? What does climate change mean to you?
• Yes; Hopefully a gradual return to the temperatures enjoyed in the middle ages (+2°C) & roman times (+3°C) as we come out of the Little Ice Age.
11 – What is the one thing you want the Earth Hour movement to achieve?
• To show what its like to live in a low carbon economy such as – Albania, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Congo, Eritrea, Nepal, North Korea, Romania, Senegal, Sudan, Togo, Yemen, Zimbabwe
Nailed it!
why is this an idea:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CUjr7JWWcVE/UtWG8PM6XHI/AAAAAAAANM8/hrgDj2DR3Pc/s1600/light+bulb.jpg
while this is not:
HOLD a lit candle over your head to make it look like you’ve just had an old-fashioned idea.
LOL!!
The best of this thread!!! I think Anthony and Josh should come out with earthday T-shirts, saying “I had an idea on earth hour”
how we used to get ideas,
before the light bulb went on:
http://gnr8.cachefly.net/gnr8biz/images/littlejosephmain2.jpg
if the CAGW crowd have their way, it will be “Lights Out” every day:
28 March: UK Telegraph: Christopher Booker: No one is talking about our utterly mad energy policy
All the major parties are signed up to the policy set in train by Ed Miliband’s Climate Change Act. They don’t know what they are doing
Last week, scarcely noticed south of the border, came the news of the premature closure of Britain’s second largest power station. The giant Longannet plant in Fife, with its 2,400-megawatt capacity, can still supply two thirds of all Scotland’s average electricity needs.
The reasons given for Longannet’s closure early next year were partly the crippling cost of the Government’s “carbon” taxes and the additional £40 million it is being charged for connection to the grid. But the immediate trigger for the decision was Longannet’s failure to win a contract to supply back-up for Scotland’s ever-rising number of wind farms at times when there is insufficient wind…
When the wind doesn’t blow, the only power to keep our lights on, our homes heated and our electric cars running would be that from those supposed new nuclear power stations.
At the present rate, with only one new nuclear power plant dubiously in view by 2024, producing electricity four times as expensive as that from coal, not even tens of thousands of diesel generators could produce enough back-up power to keep our computer-dependent economy functioning at all. (Last Tuesday evening, wind was producing less than 1 per cent of the power we were using).
But not a word of this will we hear in the election campaign: partly because all our main political parties have signed up to it, but even more because virtually none of our politicians have the slightest clue what it is they are signed up to…READ ALL
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/11501235/No-one-is-talking-about-our-utterly-mad-energy-policy.html
earth hour. freedom from electricity:
http://images.vinylpulse.com/vp_pics/kris/c79f1e16da56_13BE2/A1-Amnesty-Candle-Prisoner-Wax-Wide.jpg
Come on people. Can’t we all be carbon-friendly and energy-efficient like the Burning Man trendsters?
http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5401dccaeab8ea6725b4dff8/burning%20man%20gif%204.gif
Something pointed out by friend Brent is that there is both an Earth Hour (March 28) and an Earth Day (April 22). Both are observed by turning the lights off for an hour. Does anyone know why there are now two such times?
I thought that I remembered that one of them was also Lenin’s birthday. It is the April 22 one…..
Ian M
Just a warm up, in 5 years time we will have 365 earth days with 24 hour Earth hours, Question answered!!!
Earth Day was first (it’s now Earth Week). Earth Hour appears to be a fundraiser day for the WWF.
Earth Day/Week does not include an hour of darkness, except in North Korea.
I turn my lights off to save on my electric bill or when I go to sleep. Energy ain’t free including candles.
There are many ways to celebrate the earth other than prancing around like idiots with candles for an hour. A couple of my favorite ways is to go camping or hiking with friends or family.
Off topic – but am going to stick it here cause I’ll forget about it if I do not and it might make for an interesting future article.
From CLIFFORD ASNESS AND AARON BROWN
http://www.stumblingontruth.com/articles/Imagine%20if%20they%20disagreed%20with%20us.pdf
Alx
March 28, 2015 at 6:34 pm
Thank you for the link.
I thought it was the a very honest discussion of CAGW.
It most likely explains why people overwhelmingly do not fear AGW.
It’s well written and I strongly recommend all give it a read.
If you don’t know the full story you can start with his “essay” link.
“Environmental scientist James Hansen was much blunter, “Within less than a year, you will look like
complete fools (if you buy this crap).” We are not sure what “crap” he’s referring to as we made no forecast.
But, since he implicitly admits he needs future data to argue catastrophic global warming is imminent, he must agree past data alone do not.”
Loved it.
Thanks
Alx,
Very good read!
Thank you.
Article draft (pdf):
http://www.stumblingontruth.com/articles/Its%20not%20the%20Heat%20its%20the%20Tepidity%2020150310.pdf
I’ve a roaring campfire in the yard to celebrate.
I know, I’m pathetic, but I’ve lit at least 6 incense sticks, and we haven’t even started earth hour (no capitalization) yet.
Cork coming out of Prosecco bottle, 10 more incense sticks lined up.
You know, we’re all going to regret this if climate sensitivity to CO2 turns out to be negative.
My house is usually pretty dark but tonight I turned on all the lights on both stories of this old house
Oops! Better leave the computer and turn on the lights.
I did the survey too and told them that humankind’s contribution to global warming was not significant. Nothing to worry about, hope the waste of time and money that is earth hour ceases as soon as possible.
Just another gesture for the naïve new agers of the world so……..
ah forget it, what’s the use?
The survey is ridiculous and I don’t intend on visiting it. My great-grandfather came over the Oregon Trail. Food, water, and not shooting yourself or fellow travelers accidently was the most important issues to plan for. I think those three things are still the top three and I spend my time making sure I do a good job planning for them. After those things are secured, I spend my time enjoying the company of my neighbors and contributing my time to my community.
That these folks behind this survey plan for “global Earth day” is an example of overly spoiled folks without enough sh** to do.