Earth Hour
'Earth Hour' was held on Saturday 29
March.
Earth Hour is run by WWF (formerly
the World Wildlife Fund which was then the World Wide Fund for Nature), a
conservation organisation, and Fairfax
Media (Age, SMH, etc). 
Organisers urged people - and businesses - and governments -
to turn off their lights for 1 hour from 8pm to 9pm on Saturday 29 March
2008.
Click here for the
official Earth Hour website, where people could sign up their support. They are
already asking people to sign up for 2009!
As well as asking people to turn
off their lights for one hour, they are encouraging people to reduce their
'carbon footprint' and to spread the word!
Earth Hour started in Sydney in 2007 as a
combined project of WWW, Fairfax
Media and Leo Burnett for the city ofSydney. In 2008 it had spread to
26 cities plus many smaller
locations around the world.
How effective was it?
Claims have been made
that 2 million people in Melbourne participated in 2008 - based on a nation-wide
sample of under 4,000 people. And that power consumption was reduced by 10% for
the hour.
After which time everyone turned all the lights back
on!
People promoting the event were shown lighting candles and
promoting that as an alternative energy source. However candles still burn
carbon dioxide and also produce 'black carbon'. In Canada, one Fire Chief warned people NOT to
use candles because of the risk of starting house fires. A WA fire officer warned
people to be careful with candles for the same
reason.
Some
questions...
What was the effect?
How many candles were burnt? What costs were
involved in getting all those staff out there turning off lights at precisely
8pm?
What about the Earth Hour T-shirts?
Regardless of its aim or overall effect, the most telling comment
I read was this:
'There was darkness — and we saw it was good."
Mmmm.... says a lot, doesn't it?
Perhaps man is thinking he is
really God!
Media Reports:
City
sees light in the darkness
Sunday Age, 30/3/2008.
Melbourne
makes our darkest hour perfectly clear with 10% cut
The
Age, 31/3/2008.
For an alternative view, read Andrew
Bolt:
Earth
Hour coverage should be grounded
Herald
Sun, 28/3/2008.
Media coverage as at 31 March
2008
Google News listed 1203 articles.
Click here.
Happy reading!
Now for those questions...
What about the candles?
In one
story a lady was shown burning 28 candles to promote Earth Hour - Tim Blair
quotes a letter to the SMH stating that she was "creating more than
four times the CO2 supplied by coal power to light one old-fashioned
100-watt bulb for an hour".
Plus one has to make the
candles, transport the candles, get oneself to the venues (if assembling in a
public place) to burn the candles etc, etc.
Earthers
Burn, Tim Blair, 20/3/2008.
Click here
for an interesting analysis for Tasmania - comparing light
globes and candles.
Tamania has mostly hydro power - if you live in Tasmania,
using a 100W globe was three times more efficient for emissions than burning a
paraffin candle for an hour!
Earth Hour organisers did suggest burning beeswax candles as
they are more environmentally friendly - "smoke free, non-toxic and
non-allergenic".
[They still give off carbon dioxide].
Apparently candles
you buy at the supermarket are generally made of paraffin . . . they are
made from petrochemicals and contain
some really nasty chemicals that are carcinogenic!
What about the hot air balloon used to promote
'Earth Hour' in Sydney?
"An average one hour balloon
flight uses approximately 180-200 litres of propane, which burns to form water
and carbon dioxide; in addition to the fuel used by the balloon’s ground
retrieval crew. The activity to launch and retrieve one hot air balloon uses
the equivalent of 378.1 kilograms of greenhouse
gas."
That is from a hot air balloon
company (to justify that and ease the conscience of those using taking balloon
flights they are planting trees to be 'carbon neutral'. One of Andrew Bolt's
readers noted this was equivalent to Nearly 10,000.
60W light bulbs being used for one hour.
Hot
gospellers decry heat
Andrew Bolt – Thursday, March
20, 2008.
Those Earth Hour T-Shirts . .
.
World Wildlife Fund was selling 'Earth Hour' T-shirts
at $29.95 posted.
And people were wearing
them!
Now people have been selling T-shirts to promote events for a long time
- there is nothing wrong with a bit (or a lot) of publicity!
But recently I
read that it takes thousands of litres of water to make a cotton T-shirt:
estimates vary from 27,000
litres to 10,000
litres (this one added an extra 20,000 litres of water for the
production of 1 kg of raw cotton fibres).
Add to that the energy used for
production, the use of pesticides, transport etc... it by truck or...
So if the aim is to save the planet, can't we ask 'How much carbon dioxide is
produced, how much water is used?'
Just
asking! Author: Jenny Stokes | Modified: 1 April 2008 |
