Earth Hour?

the worrying aspect is the fact that it is happening at a quicker pace than it should be, and the causes of this is mainly the pollution and our use of fossil fuels that can no be renewed. Hence why it is impotant for us to find newer greener ways to produce electricity and reduce co2 emissions. Our use of oil and gas is having a major effect on no only our air but the structure of the planet. We are not truely sure as to what their role in the crust is, even though we know they are good for burning to heat our houses and light our streets and run our cars. Its possible that they could be a nessesary source within our planet to keep it balanced. By removing it, we could be causing more harm; increasing natural desasters caused by the earth tremoring more frequantly.
We need oxygen to live, but if we keep chopping down forests, and pumping carbons into our envoirnment, then we are doing serious damage not only to our planet but to ourselves. if there were more trees in cities and towns, less cutting down of woods and forests to make way for agriculture and motorways, we would have better air to breath.
It usually takes thousands upon thousands of years for an ice age to come about and go, but if we keep harming our planet and speeding up natures course, then it could be a few thousand years if not a few hundred years before it really freezes fast. all it takes for Ireland, britain and northern Europe to be frozen over is the gulf streem to be cut off.

Facts:

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/fq/science.html#10

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Since pre-industrial times, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) have climbed by over 36 percent, 148 percent, and 18 percent, respectively (see the Recent Atmospheric Change page on EPA’s Climate Change site for more details). Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere have varied historically as a result of many natural processes (e.g., volcanic activity, changes in temperature, etc). However, since the Industrial Revolution, humans have added a significant amount of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere primarily by burning fossil fuels, cutting down forests, and other activities. Scientists have confirmed that the recent increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations is primarily due to human activity.

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FIrst off I didnt do the earth hour thing. However:

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Originally Posted by Chava

Heck, it could even be a financial pointed finger! If you switch off all those standby appliances and turn off the lights when you leave a room, you're saving yourself on the electricity bill.
I don't see why so many find this a dissagreeable idea?

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yupp this is one of my favourite arguments for energy conservation energy bills souring and frankly I for one cant afford them and if Im home alone at the very most I need 2 lights on so why have the whole house lit up like christmas tree...

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Originally Posted by Koa

I'm appalled. If they are like that I bet their families are too? And how many more people I've never met are like that too? I find waste to be disgusting. I don't want to refrain from my shameful privileges for being born on the lucky side of the planet, but I hate the idea of abusing them. Talks of global warming aside, it's just disrespectful, how many useful things could have been done with the energy used to keep a light on all night when no one is in the room? Maybe even simple useful things like being in that room and needing that light, or watching that TV instead of leaving it babbling to itself out loud for hours... (on a couple of occasions I got home and NO ONE was in, but the TV was on).

Wow, love to rant.

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Yepp thats it Ill be the first to say that a handful of people in the developed world being energy concious, heck even if the whole devloped world were extremly enrgy concious isnt really going to change much for the living conditions of the developing world anywhere in the immidate future. But waste is just disgustin g there are people in the world that are STARVING and while you cant personally make a big differance at least appreciate the things you have and not take them for granted.

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Originally Posted by TheFifthElement

Certainly in UK (can't really speak for anywhere else) if the Government were truly serious about reducing carbon footprints then they would plough some of the significant tax income they get from fuel into 'green' energy initiatives, specifically by helping the average guy get the best energy efficiency from their home. Without a viable alternative to petrol powered transport the savings aren't going to be made by reducing car journeys (again, because there's not much of a viable alternative to that either), but considering that currently the price of petrol in UK is roughly £1.10 per litre, 72% of the price of which is tax, there's a significant pot of money there which at least some of which could go towards developing more cost effective solutions.

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Like making public transport a lot better for instance, and more people using more widly spread public transport would mean more people walking which in turn would mean more excersise an attack on the obesity epidemic and thus save a pocket on the NHS which could be plowed back into other health intiatives.

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Originally Posted by Koa

It makes me laugh that the first points for modernity in Virgil's mind are two things I loathe and wish never existed: cars and air conditioning.

Of course we need transport but public transport is fine. Air conditioning is for sissies. It's getting common now in Italy so that the past 2-3 summers there have been power black-outs. I detest the heat but air cond is so innatural that it makes me feel bad anyway, and I've been fine without it for a good 18-20 years or more, don't remember when my parents got it.
And I've heard that Africa is hotter than Italy but I doubt a/c is popular...
We're just spoilt. Electricity is needed and no one can question that, but we're taking it too far with our comforts in my opinion (such as I was mentioning the morons not bothering switching lights off etc)

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Humm I personally love a/cs mostly because we had one when I was little and they work like lullabyes on my sisters and I, switch an a/c on and we are almost instantly asleep until you turn the thing off.... its what we do the first 24 hrs in any hotel we go to just enjoy the a/c. but at the same time when we moved to egypt we all ended up -by the end of August- camped out on the floor in my mums room which was the only one with an A/c and the computer lived in there as well because by the time you got to 43-47 C the computer just dies on you. So I suppose we were conserving in a way...

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Originally Posted by Virgil

You don't have over 35C degree and 90% humidity days in Italy or probably Europe in general.

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Having said what Ive said above Egypt easily hits 48 quite regurally and more than 80% of the population dont have acs they are a luxary... a very nice one but excersiseing a little sense is much more lilky to help you than an ac, Ive had heat/sun stroke 3 or 4 times and the best way to avoide it is avoide junk food and dont forget to drink water...then again western clothes are not very heat friendly..( and Im not talking about style but rather the stuff they are made of, and the way they are woven)--also did you know that the more of your body you cover up the more water you conserve thus lowering risk of heat stroke?

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Originally Posted by Virgil

So why are we worried about global warming if it's only going to go to an ice age? :confused: The whole thing is a farce.

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because gobal warming is the gimmicky name for climate change and thats what we are really talking about and also think on this when the ice age hits -- and can we all say snow april?! :eek: It doesnt even snow this much in this town in the height of winter!-- and weve used all our fuel and havbent thought up a good alternative we will die out. Or rather the devlopped technology reliant energy guzzling parts of the world will die out a la John Whyndom. Actually as it stands the devloped countries are quickly spelling out their own doom because people in countries that routinly go hours, days and even weeks without electric or running water wont have as much trouble adapting to the 'new world' as it were... of course thats unlikly to happen any time soon still it is a valid thing to worry about. and as for that 80% of fuel remaining untapped... are you going to evict thousands and millions of people from their homes in order to dig up the ground and thus cause more enviromental problems? Thats cutting off your nose to spite your face.
:D

yeah we had a freak blizzard of snow on sunday morning. weird.

ah, i found this article in the net from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080410/..._lungless_frog just check it our and then post a comment in this thread.

what i am trying to say is if global warming/climate change is a natural phenomena then it's is inevitable isn't it. nature especially animals will adapt to that change like the example in the article i've mentioned earlier. evolution is then a correct thing wouldn't it? well, then Charles Darwin would be correct in his theory wouldn't it? and then, we would be lungless sooner or later if global warming/climate is true. ah, i also found another article that talked about the good effect of climate change/global warming to coral reefs. i'll search for it and if anyone knows about the coral reef thing, just attach it here. thanks.

from your paper and ink advocate. :)

Accountansiyot, You'll be interested to know that there already is a thread that deals with this subject: Earth hour in general chat. I'm going to merge your post with this thread so you can continue the discussion there.

I loved the irony of one of my friends msn names during earth hour, it was a complaint about how she was sitting in complete darkness because a friend of ours wanted her to take a stand, yet she was obviously on the computer, meaning 2 things, she WASN'T in complete darkness and she really wasn't taking much of a stand :p

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Originally Posted by Virgil

Ha!!! Look at the following:


You can read the rest here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,...naturalscience

But forget the rest, the key statement is that "global temperatures will not have risen since 1998." That's with all the industrialzation going on in China and India. They have been industrializing exponentially in the last ten years and the earth has actually cooled. Got that? Cooled. That tells you that whatever man has been contributing is a lower order effect. It's peanuts. The real driver, if the temperature measurements can be believed at all, is natural phenomena. This one degree increase is in the tolerance band of natural flutuaction. It's natural. Do you get it?

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Fox News isn't a reliable source of information :p.

I know I'm kind of late on this, but the whole Earth Hour thing wasn't really effective anyways. I mean, what's the point of closing off lights (most of the people I know who participated only did that part of it :rolleyes: ) for one hour of one day if, for every day of the year besides that, you leave your lights/tv/computer/laptop/everything else on all day and night? It really doesn't do any good. And 2) If the point of the project was to get people to talk about it, um isn't that what science classes are for? And even if they don't, they hear enough about the dramatization of it enough as it is.
Sure GW may be happening, but what can we realistically do about it? Seriously? The way you hear it, it sounds like if people stop using fossil fuels , everything is going to go back to normal and humans will have prevented it from happening ever again. And that's just wrong- most we can do is slow it down...

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Originally Posted by samercury

I know I'm kind of late on this, but the whole Earth Hour thing wasn't really effective anyways. I mean, what's the point of closing off lights (most of the people I know who participated only did that part of it :rolleyes: ) for one hour of one day if, for every day of the year besides that, you leave your lights/tv/computer/laptop/everything else on all day and night? It really doesn't do any good.

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We do the Earth Hour because it gives a false sense of security and solace when it comes to saving the world.