[Pil-pc-oceania] Earth Hour Sydney 31 March

[pacific-edge]

Hi Graeme...
Thanks for comment on the media pieces I sent out.

My understanding of the event was that it was designed as a symbolic action
to highlight global warming. In this, rather than in the amount of energy
unused, I think it succeeded. Fiona and I had a dinner that night with a
bunch of friends in the Inner West and turned off the lights for that time,
eating by candlelight. I hope that, were the world ever to revert to living
by candlelight, someone designs a reflector device to intensify the light
they give off.

At Manly beach there was an Earthhour concert for that hour, put on by Manly
Council, that used green energy from the grid.

I understand the event is to be aaken to other cities next year. Perhaps
it's a useful device for sustainability educators to use for enntertainment
and other events aroung global warming.

...Russ

On 13/4/07 8:00 PM, "Graeme George - Earthcare Permaculture"
<earthcarepc at virtual.net.au> wrote:

> Graeme
> 
> Having received several emails  about this event, I joined in  by
> turning off all my lights for an hour on the Saturday night, without
> much inconvenience. I hoped that lots of others would have done this too
> as a demonstration that we can be less dependent on reticulated power if
> we have to be. The Sunday night news in Victoria had quite a story on
> the event in Sydney with shots of diners eating at restaurants by
> candlelight, etc, and claims that a huge amount of CO2 was saved by
> turning all the lights off.
> 
> Russ' post includes the quote
> 
>> In the city centre alone energy consumption fell 10.2 per cent between
>> 7.30pm and 8.30pm, saving 24.86 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being
>> released
>> into the air. 
>  
> I didn't hear any mention of  the power stations turning any of their
> generators off for the hour. I didn't think that steam driven turbines
> could be shut down for such short periods, so I presume they went on
> burning coal while everyone enjoyed the hour without electric lighting.
> It seems quite probable that, with all the candles and gas lamps burning
> as well as the boilers going full steam, we may have actually generated
> more CO2 than normal.
> 
> Another quote says
> 
>> The electricity saved would be enough to power more than 200,000 standard
>> televisions for the hour and equates to a reduction of 24.86 tonnes of
>> CO2.
>> "This is the equivalent of 48,613 cars off the road for the hour," the
>> spokesman said. 
> I wonder where this electricity is that was "saved" ? Is there a huge
> bank of batteries somewhere that we haven't been told about?
> 
> We need to be clear about what the objective of this exercise was. As an
> example of what potential there is to make changes it was unexpectedly
> successful. If the objective was to save an hour's worth of greenhouse
> gases it had no hope of succeeding and could be considered a grand hoax.
> 
> Graeme George
> Earthcare Permaculture
> 35 Deering Ave, Healesville, Vic, 3777
> 
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