Everybody lights out for an hour!

FiveB247x

As Bill Hicks once said, if you want to help the world, kill yourself. One less mouth to feed, one less person polluting and one less person to buy products.

As George Carlin once said, there's nothing wrong with the planet, it's the people who are fucked up. The planet will be around a long time after humans, it's not going anywhere... we are.

Kel Varnsen

haffajappa wrote:

i was reading a story about earth hour on CBC.ca and most of the comments were negative...

i was quite shocked.
anything to turn it into an "anti-hippi" right wing movement...
how hard is it to just turn out your lights for fucks sake?
and if national landmarks and buildings are doing it, either get involved with the events or dont, don't start up the stupid global warming argument... jeez.

I don't think it is an "anti-hippi right wing movement" thing but I think the whole idea of Earth Hour is a giant waste of time. I mean people are turning of lights only (which use a lot less electricity then most other electrical appliances in a house) and they are doing it on a weekend evening when electricity demand is much lower then it would be during the week. If they really wanted to have an earth hour that actually lowered the demand for electricity, why not have it on a Tuesday afternoon in August and tell people and businesses to shut off their lights and air conditioning. The way it is set up now it is the ultimate lip service action against climate change that doesn't really do anything. Its like people can shut off their lights for an hour a year, and then think they have done their part until the next year.

ONCE DEVIDED

Its not about turning your lights off for an hour. Its about thinking about our use of power. so keeping your megawatt tvs on is not doing your part.
And the thing is you dont really have to do it all at the same time.
Instead of your family sitting under lights watching the box you could all light some candles, talk, play games etc.
to those who reckon its a hippie thing and its about global warming. Think about the planet not that we are warming but that we all are using more and more recourses to fuel our lifestyles, our toys. the planets recourses are not infinite.
regardless of warming we all need to think about it.
Am I a hippie??? NO I work in the mining industry, I help to rape our planet of its recourses. but at the same time in many small ways I have changed the way my workplace uses other recourses like paper, packing etc.
all I say is stop to think
thats all

dimitrispearljam

its an act of symbolism first of all...stop bitching...Pfff

redrock

Dinner by candlelight was lovely.

Claireack

redrock wrote:

Dinner by candlelight was lovely.

:thumbup: It was just lovely sitting in the candlelight - hubby set off a chinese lantern too.

dimitrispearljam

Claireack wrote:

redrock wrote:

Dinner by candlelight was lovely.

:thumbup: It was just lovely sitting in the candlelight - hubby set off a chinese lantern too.

to both of u.. :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :wave:

Godfather.

BLACK35 wrote:

Sorry wouldn't be able to do that tonight, Leafs play at 7:30 then the UFC event is on after that. Just a bad day for that to happen for me. Don't think the guys will like that if I turn off the fights. :(

did you watch the Carwin fight last night ? 3-27-10

Godfather.

Restless Soul

Kel Varnsen wrote:

haffajappa wrote:

i was reading a story about earth hour on CBC.ca and most of the comments were negative...

i was quite shocked.
anything to turn it into an "anti-hippi" right wing movement...
how hard is it to just turn out your lights for fucks sake?
and if national landmarks and buildings are doing it, either get involved with the events or dont, don't start up the stupid global warming argument... jeez.

I don't think it is an "anti-hippi right wing movement" thing but I think the whole idea of Earth Hour is a giant waste of time. I mean people are turning of lights only (which use a lot less electricity then most other electrical appliances in a house) and they are doing it on a weekend evening when electricity demand is much lower then it would be during the week. If they really wanted to have an earth hour that actually lowered the demand for electricity, why not have it on a Tuesday afternoon in August and tell people and businesses to shut off their lights and air conditioning. The way it is set up now it is the ultimate lip service action against climate change that doesn't really do anything. Its like people can shut off their lights for an hour a year, and then think they have done their part until the next year.

I kind of agree with you - I think the whole gesture of turning the lights off is just a gimmick. People will still have their tvs/computers etc on so i's not going to change anything.

Not even sure what the point was really - to save power? to raise awareness? to do both? Will anything change as a result of it? I doubt it. It's just one of those big gimmicky gestures that don't achieve anything in the long term.

Having said this I did turn the lights off early that night, but only because I had a migraine lol.

haffajappa

its not a gimmick.
i love it how people find themselves so put out by others taking part in a cool event...

people who want to fight about global warming are just looking for an excuse for their irresponsibility.
am i saying you need to "believe" in global warming? no.
i'm saying maybe you should take a look around at the smog and the pollution the dying seas and the stripped forests and fossil fuels and realise its not just about a political debate on whether or not the climate problem is our faults.

surely the plastic in the seas and the pollution in the skies aren't part of natural trends 10,000 years ago?

anyways, earth hour is growing and i hope it grows, they're not asking you to go out and plant trees or clean up oil spills, just have a good time and see what its like to turn out your lights for an hour :roll:

i guess this land is yours and this land is free otherwise, isn't it...

Restless Soul

haffajappa wrote:

its not a gimmick.
i love it how people find themselves so put out by others taking part in a cool event...

people who want to fight about global warming are just looking for an excuse for their irresponsibility.
am i saying you need to "believe" in global warming? no.
i'm saying maybe you should take a look around at the smog and the pollution the dying seas and the stripped forests and fossil fuels and realise its not just about a political debate on whether or not the climate problem is our faults.

surely the plastic in the seas and the pollution in the skies aren't part of natural trends 10,000 years ago?

anyways, earth hour is growing and i hope it grows, they're not asking you to go out and plant trees or clean up oil spills, just have a good time and see what its like to turn out your lights for an hour :roll:

i guess this land is yours and this land is free otherwise, isn't it...

Don't get me wrong, I do believe in the fact that that climate change is happening. I'm not one of those conservative types who bury their heads in the sand.

It's just these big charity gestures just don't ever seem to amount to anything in the long term. All those big global charity events eg live aid, which was supposed to address African poverty, hasn't really done anything. African poverty is still there. (Not that I expected it to change overnight or anything but still.

Earth Hour came and went, everyone can pat themselves on the back and feel good they did "something" but we'll all forget about the next day/week or so until the next big charity gesture gets everyone going again, for a minute.

Your suggestion about going out and planting trees or clearing up oil spills is a good one. Maybe the governments of this world should be pushing for more change in our societies to make us do more active work in these areas, rather than just passively flicking a switch on and off.

TriumphantAngel

haffajappa wrote:

i love it how people find themselves so put out by others taking part in a cool event...

i think it's great if it actually raises awareness and perhaps makes people stop and think a little more about how their actions might impact the enviroment.

my old room mate was a crack up. last year she was all excited about participating and told everyone that they needed to get on it too. gotta love her for that. nothing changed though. next day she was back to normal. she still left every light on 24/7, never recycles, drives to do errands when it would take her 5 minutes to walk, does the laundy and thinks nothing of filling up the machine for just a few items. never switches off at the power when she's finished. just to name a few. i don't think she learnt very much

Kel Varnsen

TriumphantAngel wrote:

i think it's great if it actually raises awareness and perhaps makes people stop and think a little more about how their actions might impact the enviroment.

The whole concept of "raising awareness" when it comes to any one of these huge social issues whether it be climate change, or poverty, or cancer just seems ridiculous to me. I mean who out there is not aware of climate change but can be convinced about it by other people turning off their lights for an hour. The whole idea of raising awareness seems to have been thought up by people who wanted to look like they were actually doing something, but didn't want to make the effort to raise money or make an actual change in the world. It is like George Costanza giving out fake donations to "The Human Fund" at Christmas, it sure looks nice and makes him look generous and charitable, but he didn't actually do anything.

TriumphantAngel

Kel Varnsen wrote:

TriumphantAngel wrote:

i think it's great if it actually raises awareness and perhaps makes people stop and think a little more about how their actions might impact the enviroment.

The whole concept of "raising awareness" when it comes to any one of these huge social issues whether it be climate change, or poverty, or cancer just seems ridiculous to me. I mean who out there is not aware of climate change but can be convinced about it by other people turning off their lights for an hour. The whole idea of raising awareness seems to have been thought up by people who wanted to look like they were actually doing something, but didn't want to make the effort to raise money or make an actual change in the world. It is like George Costanza giving out fake donations to "The Human Fund" at Christmas, it sure looks nice and makes him look generous and charitable, but he didn't actually do anything.

that was actually my point. hence the story of my room mate. now if she had participated and actually thought about why she was participating and made a conscious effort to change her ways, then that would have been a positive thing. yes?

clearly everyone has heard about climate change, but have they understood or cared about the consequences of inaction? maybe, just maybe, someone out there will make some positive changes if they are not already doing so, unlike my room mate.

hopefully.

gimmesometruth27

my band played a big show at earth hour in st louis last year. it was held at busch stadium and there were about 800 people there or so. we played for about 90 minutes, then the mayor came and gave a speech, then the lights at busch stadium, the arch, one of the bridges across the mississippi river, and several of the prominent skyscrapers on the city skyline all went out. it was pretty cool to see all of these prominent landmarks go completely dark. i am sure that if people did not know what was going on they definitely noticed that the lights were out, so it did bring attention to the cause. at the event there were probably 50 different displays from green companies that demonstrated their products and how their products had very little impact on the environment. after the lights came back on we played for another hour and it was a really cool experience and i learned quite a bit from it. my favorite moment was learning how to drive segways and racing them.. we were going to play it again last night but we were already booked somewhere else...hopefully next year though.