Will You Join the Earth Hour Movement?

[daniellemorgan]

Here is the blurb the site gives to send out to people:"Hey, I just signed up to the new Earth Hour website for 2008 and I thought you might like to take a look and possibly sign up too. Earth Hour is on 29 March 2008 at 8pm, and it looks like it's going to be really big. So far, as well as Sydney, there'll also be Chicago, Tel Aviv, Manila, Copenhagen, Melbourne, Brisbane and Toronto all turning off their lights for an hour in the name of fighting global warming. And I'm sure there'll be more cities by March. Sign up for Earth Hour with me by visiting http://www.earthhour.org/sign-up and join the movement."If you can everyone should try and do this...:balloon: Let it be everyone's good deed for the day!! :angel:

 

[redsoxgirl]

8pm local time?

ETA: I just answered my own question (from the http://www3.earthhourus.org/):
We invite everyone throughout North America and around the world to turn off the lights for an hour starting at 8 p.m. (your own local time)–whether at home or at work, with friends and family or solo, in a big city or a small town.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

The goofballs in the People's Republic of Madison have signed on to this, too.I'll be turning on every light in my house during this time, and encouraging all my friends to do so, as well.This is one of the dumbest things I've heard of since the campaign to not buy gas for a day.

 

[janetupnorth]

I have to say I agree with KG...efforts similar to this are well, not well thought out.How much energy is used in promoting this event and running the server of the website it is on?What use is turning off lights for one hour with no long-term change in behavior? Especially when people may do things before or after the hour to make up for the hour loss! Anyone consider what would happen to the power if EVERYONE shut off their lights in one specific area for an hour and/or completely stopped energy consumption? Do you know how much time and effort it would take to restart a power grid after it shut down? Starting and stopping machinery, equipment, whatever takes more power consumption than just running it through the specific time period.Not to rain on your parade Danielle, but I too will pass and proceed with my normal life. These campaigns never look and the "big picture" just their portion.

 

[redsoxgirl]

I think you guys are making valid points, but I also think things like are a good way to get people to look at their energy consumption. So maybe someone doesn't participate Saturday night, but it may may them think about all the lights they leave on for no reason or whatever.

Don't dismiss the good something like this could do so easily

 

[ChefBeckyD]

8-9pm is "getting ready for bed" time here at our house. DS takes a bath, gets a story and a snack, and settles down for the evening. So, lights won't be going out at our house during that time.

But hey - if they had said Lights Out at 10-11 - we could do that....since the lights are all going out at that time anyway!

 

[janetupnorth]

I don't dismiss the good, but I have to say I have to logically look at the overall picture. It is the engineer in me. This, to me personally, not to judge for you guys, has political/cause gimic written all over it. I think if the energy used to create a campaign like this was used instead to campaign for new refineries to be built, for people to create AND BUILD better products (not new lightbulbs) but decent, quality products. We'd be better off.I'm personally tired of going to Walmart and finding crap that lasts 6 months and having to throw it away and buy a new one. Spend a little more time, effort and money and give me something of quality and maybe I wouldn't be filling landfills and driving to the store more often to replace broken things and spending money where I don't need to.Where is the quality of the products of my youth?
Where is the skilled labor force of the United States?
Where are the things we truly need to make life better?For me, it is a matter of effort and priorities. If you want to participate, fine, I don't care what lights are on in your house that night, but I am choosing to use my energy that night and maybe submit a show, or call a guest, or teach my kids about science so they can be more educated, productive adults. It is a matter of what causes I feel deserve my time and talents.

 

[ChefBeckyD]

I don't dismiss the good, but I have to say I have to logically look at the overall picture. It is the engineer in me. This, to me personally, not to judge for you guys, has political/cause gimic written all over it. I think if the energy used to create a campaign like this was used instead to campaign for new refineries to be built, for people to create AND BUILD better products (not new lightbulbs) but decent, quality products. We'd be better off.

I'm personally tired of going to Walmart and finding crap that lasts 6 months and having to throw it away and buy a new one. Spend a little more time, effort and money and give me something of quality and maybe I wouldn't be filling landfills and driving to the store more often to replace broken things and spending money where I don't need to.

Where is the quality of the products of my youth?
Where is the skilled labor force of the United States?
Where are the things we truly need to make life better?

For me, it is a matter of effort and priorities. If you want to participate, fine, I don't care what lights are on in your house that night, but I am choosing to use my energy that night and maybe submit a show, or call a guest, or teach my kids about science so they can be more educated, productive adults. It is a matter of what causes I feel deserve my time and talents.

Well said, Janet!

 

[daniellemorgan]

Just some FYI:

- Immediate impact. Last year's Earth Hour, which happened only in Sydney, Australia, had the effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for an hour. This year's event is global, so savings will be even bigger.

I wasn't trying to be all political, but there is some truth to just changing one light bulb in your house to an energy saving one. Can you deny that? So how can you say that turning lights off for an hour won't help anything.

These are my personal opinions and when it comes down to it I can't change how manufacturers make their products, but I can make little changes in my home, like:

1. shopping organic and locally
2. changing my lightbulbs
3. recycling
4. limiting my water usage and using cold water to wash
5. using natural cleaning products

Again just my opinions...

 

[janetupnorth]

In relation to your stuff - I try to and I know Becky does shop more organic and locally. I do that for my personal health and to help local stores/farmers.On #5, if you don't already, use vinegar. It is a great natural deodorizer and fabric softener you can use it alone in the wash. It is fairly reasonable too. You can save a lot of money.

 

[ChefBeckyD]

Just some FYI:

- Immediate impact. Last year's Earth Hour, which happened only in Sydney, Australia, had the effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for an hour. This year's event is global, so savings will be even bigger.

I wasn't trying to be all political, but there is some truth to just changing one light bulb in your house to an energy saving one. Can you deny that? So how can you say that turning lights off for an hour won't help anything.

These are my personal opinions and when it comes down to it I can't change how manufacturers make their products, but I can make little changes in my home, like:

1. shopping organic and locally
2. changing my lightbulbs (did anyone see the report about the 11 step program it takes to clean up the mercury if one of the new lightbulbs should break? )
3. recycling
4. limiting my water usage and using cold water to wash (when it's appropriate)
5. using natural cleaning products

Again just my opinions...

Danielle, I do all of the things I bolded above. They make sense not just for the environment, but also personally for my family.

But I have to wonder - so it took 48,000 cars off the road for that hour....IMO, that means that people just went out earlier, or later - and just didn't go out for that 1 hour. And when there are 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year....how much impact does that really have?

Not trying to argue - those are just thoughts/questions that run through my head with something like this.

 

[ChefClairissa]

I think that a great way to spend Earth hour is to really think about your environmental impact. If you are happy with it, then great! If not, then think about what you might do to change your ways. I think its a great way to get a conversation going and get people thinking about what they can do for the rest of the year, not just one day.

 

[daniellemorgan]

In relation to your stuff - I try to and I know Becky does shop more organic and locally. I do that for my personal health and to help local stores/farmers.

On #5, if you don't already, use vinegar. It is a great natural deodorizer and fabric softener you can use it alone in the wash. It is fairly reasonable too. You can save a lot of money.

I do use vinegar for my floors. I only have one all-purpose cleaner that I use for everything.

 

[daniellemorgan]

I think that a great way to spend Earth hour is to really think about your environmental impact. If you are happy with it, then great! If not, then think about what you might do to change your ways. I think its a great way to get a conversation going and get people thinking about what they can do for the rest of the year, not just one day.

Which is really what the point off it is....atleast that's what i take from it!

 

[ChefBeckyD]

We have begun using vinegar for so many things!

We are using it to wash windows (DH found some recipe, and mixed it up)
We use it with laundry to freshen and soften
We are using it to wash floors, counters. etc.....

Google it and you can find all sorts of uses for it!