I think they combined the total for each time zone at 8:30 p.m. Not 8:30 p.m. just for the U.S. time when it's sunny on the other side.

I wholeheartedly agree.

My biggest annoyance at the moment is reporters spurting out unquantified facts & figures. Even with this 'downturn', they say stuff like '12,000 more people are unemployed than in the 80's recession', but unless youre going to tell me what % were already unemployed, or how many more people there are of working age around now, it means absolutely jack shit. Every morning the news pisses me off with 'non-facts'. I wish I could think of more examples, cos I havent had the opportunity to whinge about this before.

Honnestly they've been trying to get people to be careful with their energy consumption for years and it just doesnt work.



The fact is that we want to have a comfortable life and we want to travel and conserving engery doesnt really fit in with that.



What we need is to invest heavily in green technology and especially in countries like the USA and developing countries we need to invest in public transport.



Laws also need to be put in place to stop the growth of the never ending suburbs and make everything more local, North americans need to dramatically reduce their dependancy on the car but thats only going to happen with changes at the govermental level.

It was five days ago, not last year. Obviously whatever resources they wasted promoting it wasn't enough since you didnt realise it was even happening. Earth Hour is an event organised by the WWF who I don't believe are a circle jerk they do in fact spend the whole 364 other days of the year "doing something useful like teaching kids how to preserve electricity through education, setting a good example ourselves, and promoting research into green energy." Earth Hour is an event for one night, like Daffodil Day or Red Nose Day or any other day oranised by a charity to raise awareness. Unlike these events that involve a purchase of a wrsitband or flower or funny nose, Earth Hour reduced energy consumption in Sydney by 14% that hour which I think does far more than any other awareness campaign. Participation by cities by turning off major landmarks makes everyone in the city aware of the reasons and encourages them to take action. It also makes the government aware that the people in the countries want them to take action on climate change. The government has the power to introduce green energy and take other measures against climate change. By turning off your lights, that's your vote for planet earth, it tells your leaders you want action on the issue. And by participating, if you realise that you can get by without your lights for an hour a night, or by turning your appliances off while you're not using them and continue doing this throughout the year, you can make a big difference yourself. If you want to do more, you can sign up at the website for tips on how to reduce your carbon footprint throughout the year.

i hope the WWF is run my the Junk Yard Dog and The Iron Sheik.



(anything that makes people think about how they use energy and gets some seed of conserving energy planted, would have to be a good thing no?)

Is this the green issues vent blog?

happy birthday :D

Squatter, I'd think the mark of the campaigns success is the energy consumption the day after "earth hour" relative to average consumption.



I bet it did jack shit. And I bet most of those that did turn their lights off did so to avoid being different or judged for having their lights on.



The only thing that has successfully had communities turning their lights off since their invention has been air raids.

Thanks chelly.

these things don't really do anything; rallying for one specific day.

we need lifestyle changes.



*now, if you wouldn't mind, i must be getting back to my energy guzzling edit bay with three monitors, two power strips, a halogen light and a tv monitor, two decks, a mixing board and patch bay where the power hasn't been turned off in at least two months.*

Bullshit!



This is a long term campaign. Its success is not measured a day later. It will be measured eight months later when world leaders agree on a new climate treaty to replace Kyoto and it will be measured twenty years later when that treaty has reduced the impact of carbon emissions and climate change long term.

again, squatter, those things will be lifestyle changes. not turning your lights off for an hour in the middle of the night.

bullshit green is made of PEOPLE



IT'S MADE OF PEOPLE!!!

a) Turning off your lights at night is a lifestyle change.



b) (And do I really need to repeat myself here?) The point of Earth Hour itself is a symbolic action that lets the governments of the whole world know that the whole world cares about this issue. Many countries are democratic and it's very important that their governments listen to their people. The governemnts in both Australia and the USA were both reluctant to act on climate change and did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol. They've since been replaced by new governments who will take more action. Some countries may be far from an election. Some countries don't get to vote at all. How do these people communicate with their governemtns? By participating in this mass demonstation that is Earth Hour. That's what it's all about. Now feel free to piss and moan about the government all you like. I feel as if I'm opening myself up to that by saying this but whatever. It's the governments of the world who will be meeting in Copenhagen in December to come up with a new framework to replace the Kyoto Protocol and meet the challenges of climate change. The people of the world have sent a message to these governments and it is one they have heard. The success of Earth Hour will be measured when this new treaty is signed and when the governemnts implement laws that reduce carbon emissions in ways that dwarf an hour with the lights off into absolute insignificance. But the reason they will do it is because we the people asked them to with our vote for planet earth.



But by all means go back to your energy guzzling edit bay with three monitors, two power strips, a halogen light and a tv monitor, two decks, a mixing board and patch bay where the power hasn't been turned off in at least two months safe and smug in the knowledge that you're doing absolutely nothing to help but at least you're keeping it real. You're so much smarter than the rest of us sheep who are too stupid to think for ourselves.