Hatrack River Forum: Earth Hour-8:00 Tonight!

This is topic Earth Hour-8:00 Tonight! in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Valentine014 (Member # 5981) on :

I will be going dark at 8, will you?
Link

Posted by Javert (Member # 3076) on :

Well, I'll be in a theater watching Merchant of Venice at 8pm tonight. So my house will be dark anyway.

Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :

Does that mean EVERYTHING has to be off?
I'll go insane if I don't have music to listen to and a book to read.

Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :

We have kids. We do this every night.

Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :

I'm going to turn on every light and leave my fridge door open.

ANARCHY!

Posted by katdog42 (Member # 4773) on :

We're participating. I'm looking forward to an hour of sitting on the porch watching the city go by and just chatting with my housemates. It's amazing how turning off the television and computers can be such a great time for community-building.

Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :

Unfortunately, I made plans to go out before I heard about this. But I will be shutting down my computer instead of putting it to sleep before I leave, and I won't leave the porch light on while I'm gone. If it was a little warmer out, I would ride my bike instead of driving, but that's still a bit impractical for me as there's still ice on the roads.

Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :

There's the Google"blackout", and then there's the interesting thing about computers.

Posted by brojack17 (Member # 9189) on :

I'll just buy a carbon credit so I don't have to really do anything to conserve. [Evil Laugh]

Posted by HollowEarth (Member # 2586) on :

So was this everything you ever dreamed it would be?

Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :

The restaurant I went to was observing Earth Hour! I wasn't sure it was open when I got there, because all the lights were off. You could see the lights were on in the kitchen, but that was it, candles everywhere else, even the sign was turned off.

Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :

It would have been cool if our restaurant observed it...and the lights were sort of low in the dining room, but there's a slim chance in hell of a sports bar turning everything off during March Madness.

I did turn off the lights to the walk in freezer when no one was looking. I consider it my own private observance.

Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :

I wonder how much resources it costs to produce the candle light vs. the amount it costs to produce the electricity for normal electric lights.

Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :

The Dark Sky Initiative.

Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :

Personally, I wonder if the soot put off from the candles adds more pollution than the electricity would have. But I don't see Earth Hour as important for the actual reductions for that hour, they're comparatively miniscule. I see it as more important as a publicity stunt, to get people's attention and make them think about how much extra electricity they use year round that could be cut down.

Posted by hansenj (Member # 4034) on :

Paul and I turned out our lights. [Smile]

We had a very wonderful and peaceful hour. I read aloud by the light of our one(!! I was surprised we only have one! So much for emergency preparedness.) candle. We enjoyed it so much, we're thinking of making it a regular occurrence.

Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :

MC: Me too! Then I burned a tire.

While the rest of you were getting a "feel good" from your meaningless act of following the herd, I was getting a "feel good" from my act of open rebellion.

And none of us actually accomplished anything.

Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :

As a hobbyist astronomer living in the middle of a large metropolitan area, I've been a member of these guys:

http://www.darksky.org/mc/page.do

-Bok

Posted by hansenj (Member # 4034) on :

quote:
Originally posted by The Pixiest:
While the rest of you were getting a "feel good" from your meaningless act of following the herd...

That's a pretty cynical way of looking at it. Personally, my husband and I participated mostly on a whim. It's not that I felt we were making a huge difference or a huge statement. It did seem kinda fun to be part of something so widespread. The biggest thing I got out of it, though, was how peaceful it was for that hour. That's why we're thinking of making it a regular occurrence. It's such a small thing, but our lives are so fast-paced and full of stress that it really felt good to take a breather from it all for just an hour.

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

How quaint. Shabbos for a single hour -- and on a Monday night! [Wink]

Posted by hansenj (Member # 4034) on :

Interesting point, rivka. I imagine our (LDS) Sabbath should be for us what Shabbos is for you. Too often we get caught up in our various responsibilities of the day and it ends up being just as stressful or even more stressful than the rest of the days during the week.

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

That can easily happen on Shabbos too. [Smile]

I was mostly commenting on the evening of candlelight. [Big Grin]

Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :

quote:
Earth Hour-8:00 Tonight!

Am I going mad, or does it seem like we just had one of those? [Wink]