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For those who don't have a bunch of tree-hugging friends, tonight at 8:30 local time is Earth Hour, an hour when you're supposed to turn off all your lights for an hour to, uh, "Vote Earth" (whatever that means, of course, but we all know voting is great and Earth is great so it must be great). It's supposed to be a statement of your belief that global warming is a bad thing.
OK, so, turning off lights saves energy. I don't dispute this. However, the rest of this is stupid. Let me go through in order.
A) How are people supposed to know who "voted Earth" and who didn't? Well, a good way would be to look at electricity usage. If people are actually decreasing their usage, it should show up as a dip in the graph. Nevermind that, for instance, Oklahoma is in the middle of a cold snap and we're all running our heaters.
B) But wait, we aren't asking people to stop using any electricity, or as much as possible-- we are asking them ONLY to turn off the lights. If you think I'm reading incorrectly, go to the front page of the Earth Hour website and note the "blog during the event" banner, meaning that you'd have to have a computer running during that hour. Hm, let's see, my computer has a 400W power supply (not that it uses all that power, but it could if it wanted to) and I have by my count 9 fluorescent bulbs in the house, not a one over 40 watts. So I could turn on all the lights in any room in the house and definitely use less energy than the computer.
C) Of course, you could point out that not everyone can turn off things like their heat, or necessary appliances, during that hour, and turning off the lights is something everyone can do. Well, can they, really? How many people trip and fall due to inadequate light? And how many people get hurt by using candles because our industrialized society just has no concept of open-flame safety? It doesn't save energy to use a non-electrical source of light if that source takes fuel that had to be manufactured.
Anyways, I'll be inadvertently participating, sort of-- because I'll be turning off the lights and leaving the house at 8:30, and going to work, where our lights are on. I'm half tempted to just switch on the living room lights and leave them on until Raven gets up. I seriously disagree with token "gee, look how much we help" gestures, especially when they detract from REAL questions of electricity usage.
(REAL questions: how do we keep people safely warm in the winter, safely cool in the summer, and able to see safely at night? Isn't there something better than encouraging old people to go to the mall during the daytime to get cool? What about Daylight Savings Time, which sends people home earlier during the heat of the day, to sit in their air conditioned McMansions instead of together at work?)
OK, so, turning off lights saves energy. I don't dispute this. However, the rest of this is stupid. Let me go through in order.
A) How are people supposed to know who "voted Earth" and who didn't? Well, a good way would be to look at electricity usage. If people are actually decreasing their usage, it should show up as a dip in the graph. Nevermind that, for instance, Oklahoma is in the middle of a cold snap and we're all running our heaters.
B) But wait, we aren't asking people to stop using any electricity, or as much as possible-- we are asking them ONLY to turn off the lights. If you think I'm reading incorrectly, go to the front page of the Earth Hour website and note the "blog during the event" banner, meaning that you'd have to have a computer running during that hour. Hm, let's see, my computer has a 400W power supply (not that it uses all that power, but it could if it wanted to) and I have by my count 9 fluorescent bulbs in the house, not a one over 40 watts. So I could turn on all the lights in any room in the house and definitely use less energy than the computer.
C) Of course, you could point out that not everyone can turn off things like their heat, or necessary appliances, during that hour, and turning off the lights is something everyone can do. Well, can they, really? How many people trip and fall due to inadequate light? And how many people get hurt by using candles because our industrialized society just has no concept of open-flame safety? It doesn't save energy to use a non-electrical source of light if that source takes fuel that had to be manufactured.
Anyways, I'll be inadvertently participating, sort of-- because I'll be turning off the lights and leaving the house at 8:30, and going to work, where our lights are on. I'm half tempted to just switch on the living room lights and leave them on until Raven gets up. I seriously disagree with token "gee, look how much we help" gestures, especially when they detract from REAL questions of electricity usage.
(REAL questions: how do we keep people safely warm in the winter, safely cool in the summer, and able to see safely at night? Isn't there something better than encouraging old people to go to the mall during the daytime to get cool? What about Daylight Savings Time, which sends people home earlier during the heat of the day, to sit in their air conditioned McMansions instead of together at work?)
