C to the Andice writes:
ECB I’m surprised! There was NOTHING on Slog regarding Earth Hour. At least not last week to build up tension and awareness for the day. Nothing Saturday (3/28) to inform people that it was that evening. No one reporting any gatherings they may have attended, lights they switched off, pride they may have in the fact that this global event has united millions of people.
Of all the Sloggers I thought you’d have something to say about it.
Do you?
I really wanna hear about other people’s experiences. We had about 10 friends over and ate a beautiful dinner by candlelight. We would’ve actually enjoyed nature by going outside if it hadn’t
rained all day… of course once the food was ready the rain had stopped.Anyways… if you participated please tell us your story. If you didn’t get me someone who did, dammit. I want information!
Thanks, yo!
c to the andice
Guilty as charged—I completely spaced Earth Hour (and I’m kind of ambivalent about it anyway, truth be told). If anyone participated and would like to share their experiences, leave ’em in the comments.
Photos of Las Vegas before and during Earth Hour from The Big Picture, via TerraPass.
I heard that 10 people ate their dinner by candle light somewhere…. but that’s about it.
It was kind of hard walking home from the Sounders game in the dark, actually.
Will, you have to open your eyes after you close them. That’s step 2 in the blinking process.
What is it that possesses you to lie like that, Will?
If you did indeed walk home from the Sounders game, which I very much doubt, you didn’t do it during Earth Hour, which ended about the time most people were able to get out of the stadium — and which showed no visible effects anywhere in the vicinity.
Seriously: seek professional help. I’m sure your UW insurance will cover it.
I was gonna say something pithy, but then I saw WiS’s comment and had a brain freeze. Jesus, I knew the guy was a fuckwad, but that’s pretty over the top.
I went to a party
Las Vegas during Earth Hour looks like any normal city at night.
All the neighbors came by,we had the whole yard lit up and we cooked a big meal using both ovens and all 6 burners on the stove.Pa broke out the electric piano and ma her electric guitar and they played along with 33s on the old fashioned turntable.They even brought the strobe lights and a mini laser show that really looked cool when we turned down the lights for earth hour.Whatever that is.
I turned the heat on full blast and opened the windows while blasting slayer with every light and appliance on.
now it’s snowing.
good call on them sleeping on this shit. erica was probably out stealing wine.
Fnarf, you obviously didn’t walk all the way to Fremont.
Some of those alley ways are pretty dark without lights on.
I changed all my CF bulbs back to incandescent ones.
It made me happy.
Earth Hour? You’re kidding me. I’m stingy with electricity use summer, spring, winter, and fall. Get with it.
I sat through it doing nothing because empty gestures about the environment are pointless in suburban Ohio. I have fucking coal dust on my windshield.
I also spaced on Earth Hour. I was at a friend’s house but would probably have forgotten even if I was home. I’m not quite sure of its purpose–I’m all for energy conservation like a good liberal should be, but I wonder if turning out the lights for an hour on a Saturday evening once a year is anything more than a feelgood stunt with no practical results.
You have to give WiS some credit: the man is completely and perpetually undaunted by anything.
Why thanks. Besides, unlike Fnarf, I’m in both the Green Power and Green Up programs, so my energy use is 200 percent green.
Next step is to switch to LED lights and leave all you in the dust with your CFLs.
@14: if you visit the Earth Hour website at http://www.earthhour.org you can get more of the jist of the event. It’s not about the amount of energy conserved during that hour. It’s about the amount of people who show their support for the global warming awareness.
I can’t believe all the negative comments I’ve read about this. If you are at all interested in conservation and taking a stance against global warming why wouldn’t you participate? Turn the lights out for ONE HOUR. That’s all.
We had a great time that evening and I whole heartedly plan to participate and spread the word each year from now on. Why does everything have to be so looked down on? It can actually be fun to be in the dark. Think of all you can do:
Dine by candle light
Have a seance
Drum in a drum circle
Have sex
Go for a stroll
What’s not to like?!
Why were the lights off in the alley in Fremont an hour after Earth Hour ended, Willie Boy?
I’m glad to hear that your energy use is “200% Green”, though. That sounds superduperrific. It’s stupid and makes no sense, but I’m sure it’s excellent.
Earth hour? What a joke.
And when will Will in Seattle and Fnarf finally throw caution to the wind and admit their undying man love for each other?
@19: you’re a joke. Have you even bothered to look into how many millions of people participated this year?
If you don’t want to join others in observing Earth Hour, fine. Don’t make a mockery of those of us who do. What does it matter to you if I want to sit in the dark for an hour?
@ 17 – “It’s not about the amount of energy conserved during that hour. It’s about the amount of people who show their support for the global warming awareness.”
What does this even mean? I don’t want to be a dick, but, like – how does supporting awareness do anything? I assume you do other enviro stuff and kudos for that, but Eart Hour sounds like purely symbolic activism for people who want to indicate how much they care about a problem without actually having to do anything.
I get 100 percent green power with Green Power plus the extra for Green Up goes to making solar powered bus shelters and powering schools with solar and wind.
Hence, 200 percent.
Yes we can!
I simply threw the circuit breaker. I wish I did it more often. We set up a tent in the backyard and our daughter had a sleepover.
Fap, fap, fap.
@17 – show support for awareness? Huh?
Global warming isn’t some fringe issue that gets no coverage in the mainstream media. It’s fucking everywhere you look. There is no longer any need to ‘show support for awareness’ – what is needed is concrete and meaningful action, not empty feelgood gestures.
Maybe it’s because Earth Hour is fucking retarded. It’s like “Buy nothing day”. “Support” my ass. It’s a bunch of people who can feel self-righteous about turning off the lights for one hour and then not actually change any of their long-term behavior. Try actually conserving energy instead of participating in meaningless wanking.
@20 well fuckface if you really want to know, I live my life in a very earth friendly way. Small carbon foot print and all that.
As such, I will openly mock you and anybody else who participates in such an obvious empty political gesture as earth hour. Your bush league attempts at feelgoodism™ are laughable.
So now that we’re aware of how other people are aware, what’s next?
I have a very small carbon footprint.
I do my part, always have, it is just the way I have lived for years, long before anyone was talking about global warming.
But I am not into guilt guided events at all.
After saying that it just happens that I had one source of light on at that time. My computer on battery power while I worked.
But I wonder how many households turned their furnaces off during that time since lighting contributes up to 20% of the heat in a house. So the furnace kicks in and uses the same if not more energy to bring up the heat to what it would be if you had lighting on.
It is never a simple thing like just turning off the lights, to really save energy you would have to restructure the way you live. Which like I mentioned I did years ago.
It is different for each household, you would have to evaluate exactly how you live to figure out how to save energy. Turning off the lights just might have caused a spike in energy use just because it happened to be cold out and every home involved had to compensate for the percentage of heat loss usually produced by lighting.