Earth Hour 2009

[matthew]

What I want to know, is how many of those people who went to one of those 'candle in the park' do, hopped in their car and drove down there.
Over all we would have been better off if they stayed and home and watched TV.

There was one such 'earth hour concert' near my place. I felt like writing on the bottom of their advertising posters - 'Walk or ride a bicycle to event. No cars'.

 

[theRBK]

Not exactly. Power grids are powered by multiple generators. Excess power is cut by switching off generators when demand drops below supply.

that might be the case when talking about peak periods, when power goes over and above base load generation capacity and peak power generation is called in to supply extra power, but at 8.30 on a Saturday night, I would think power use is already off-peak so peak generation plants, those that are designed to be activated and deactivated easily, would already be off and it would be unlikely for base load generators to be further switched off just for 1 hour... power generation is not responsive to current demand shifts, but to patterns of power demand... maybe in Singapore, where most of the electricity is generated by natural gas, it might be possible to adjust more easily due to the technology of that system (but even here, if they actually do reduce power generation for that 1 hour period, I'm sure we would hear about it in the news), but most of the world's power, certainly most of the world's base load power generation, is not gas driven and may not be as responsive...

it would be interesting to find out how much electricity generation was throttled back during Earth Hour... I would not be surprised to find out none... and one interesting point brought up by some scientist and reported in the papers today: by using candles (a not very efficient means of light production) instead of electricity (which as I mentioned above would already have been produced), Earth Hour might actually have created more green house gases...

like I mentioned in my previous post, I'm not against saving the environment and all that, but there are better ways to create awareness, and this talk of either one cares for the environment by supporting Earth Hour or one is for global warming by not participating, does it not sound like the kind of argument proposed by a recently former American President's administration on wide ranging issues, an administration the environmentalists have criticized for being not very green... pot, kettle

 

[dahaoren]

Dear all, i believe this thread has served its purpose and thus shall closed this thread. Appreciate all who have participated in the Earth Hour or even ever the thought of saving the Mother Earth comes into the mind. This is a good start for more awareness. Saving the Earth is definitely a long term commitment. For those who are still young, think about what kind of environment you want to stay in in the future. For those who have kids, what kind of Earth U wish they can live in when they reach your age? Then you will know what this Earth hour is for.

Cheers! It's cool to be GREEN!