At exactly 8:30 pm on March 28th (next Saturday), turn off all non-vital electronic equipments where you are.

This is to support the global effort, Earth Hour, in recognition of the current planetary climate change crisis.

Is there a certain time zone?

Even still, it'd dumb because it's-
a. Temporary and solves nothing.
b. At night, when energy costs / consumption is low anyways.

I will be turning on everything in my house at that time, to be ignorant as possible.

How very narrow minded of you.

No time zone. 20:30 at your local time.

The goal is to raise awareness and support. An hour of power offing isn't going to make a difference, but it makes people think about conservation.

I wouldn't call it a crisis. Current "global warming" theories utilize very poor reasoning, with very little actual research to back it up.

1 - Human CO2 production is very insignificant compared to natural CO2 production, coming from volcanic activity and weathering of rock
2 - C02 is a very poor greenhouse gas. Studies show that CO2 could only warm the earth less than 1?C per doubling. And the atmospheric CO2 concentration has nowhere near doubled in the last century. Methane and water vapor absorb far more of the infrared spectrum.
3 - Current theories generally neglect negative feedback systems. For example, increasing global temperatures would evaporate more seawater, producing more cloud cover and thereby reflecting more infrared back into space, acting to stabilize temperatures.

Honestly, it's nothing more than utter disregard of the scientific method and a bunch of Chicken Little's running around screaming that the sky is falling. I will be making full utilization of my electrical devices and continue to drive my gas-guzzling vehicle. While conservation of resources is a good idea, scaring people into it is not the way to do it.

Global warming or not, huge amounts C02 can't be good for our health, and something is making the glaciers melt. It's always wise to conserve our non-renewable resources, as well. We have no idea how long we'll need them.

Everything will be switched off as usual when I go out to work for 9 hours so I needn't bother. Besides, the power stations will keep on churning out the volts wheter I use them or not.

I think it's a great idea. It's 2037 for me local time, and all the lights are out in my house that are usually on, thou i still have my 'puter plugged in and a lamp on so i don't kill myself tripping.

That would be cool if stores and malls and bars participated and closed down for an hour, even though it's sunday and they're not open anyway.

It's just smart and logical to do things to save on resources in general: waste is fail, period. you need as much money as possible to build moar pylons for your turret matrix defense...

)

LOL GLOBAL WARMING, as if I'm going to sacrifice my own enjoyment just for some really terribad theory that we're destroying the planet with CO2. HEY GUESS WHAT, almost all of the CO2 in the atmosphere is from natural sources, WHOA I'M REALLY GOING TO MAKE A DETRIMENTAL IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT WHEN I LEAVE MY COMPUTER ON FOR AN EXTRA HOUR.

Not to crap on your thread, satch, but I don't know why people still push this ridiculous CO2 = global warming stuff. If anything, it's the other way around.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/CarbonCycle/carbon_cycle3.php

waste is fail, period. you need as much money as possible to build moar pylons for your turret matrix defense...

I think this makes the most sense out of the thread. Well put.

b. At night, when energy costs / consumption is low anyways.

LOOOOOOL .
When we started to use street lights in mid-day ?

Anyway, earth slowly dies because people like you.

[EDIT]

1 - Human CO2 production is very insignificant compared to natural CO2 production, coming from volcanic activity and weathering of rock

Yeah right ..
The actual problem is the forests cutting and lack of green space.
I know it's hard to believe anyone from here can help by turning off his lights, but add that to billions of people on earth . And I really think power plants produce electricty according to the consumption for efficiency.

Nobody is qualified to post any facts, only one guy has got it right.

We're really just doing all the plants a favor, feeding them a buffet of CO2.
Go CO2!

LOOOOOOL .
When we started to use street lights in mid-day ?

I'm not sure if you know what acronyms are, or letters for that matter, but in the real world PM stands for post meridiem. That's latin for "after noon". If I recall correctly, and I doubt anyone will tell me I'm wrong, 8:30 PM is at night.

Not sure if you knew that.

Anyway, earth slowly dies because people like you.

It's people like you that lower the IQ of the planet.

I doubt anyone will tell me I'm wrong, 8:30 PM is at night.

Not right now, thanks to daylight-saving time changes.

You. Yes, you. You, shut up... you.

Luke's argument seems pretty solid.

It's people like you that lower the IQ of the planet.

No , seriously now, I calculated my IQ and it's over 115.

I for one will probably read a book or take a stroll in the woods. One hour is nothing

Reading sounds like a good idea to me.

No , seriously now, I calculated my IQ and it's over 115.

Sounds like you need to bone up on your math skills, Striker.
Also, an IQ score is even less reliable at determining how smart someone is than their GPA is at showing how well they did in school.
It's a bullshit average that doesn't take strengths or weaknesses into account, and doesn't factor in higher level or conceptual thinking.

It's a bullshit average

I don't care for that too. I mean, I know to calculate the area of a room for example ... or the volume ... but if would need to calculate the volume for a sphere I'd had to search for the formula.(it's normal that I forget them . you would get headaches if you could see what the hell we're doing in school)

It's only enthusiasm and strong interest that makes me learn. And maths really doesn't make me enthusiastic at all.

Take a look at this whole thread and you will realise, just like real life, no-one can agree on wheather CO2 is slowly destroying the planet or not. Some people are trying to scare the shit out of everyone (so they'll do something about it), and others are trying to say the exact opposite...

Personally, the way I see it, if people can't agree on something, it's probably better to ignore everyone... Just to keep this thread in context, Earth Hour to me is just another hour with a fancy name.

Well all this modern activities surely aren't beneficial to the nature.

We do need to conserve resources and become more efficient. That is beneficial both economically and environmentally. What we don't need is this stupid carbon caps/trading system that is nothing but more pointless government regulations and an economic disaster waiting to happen.

Plus, most so-called environmentally friendly solutions really aren't. For example, wind power is horribly expensive, destroys land and affects weather patters far more than CO2 does (large wind farms can reduce wind speeds by as much as 5-10MPH). It takes thousands of wind turbines to replace one coal plant. That's a lot of land destroyed. And it takes tens of thousands of wind turbines to replace a single nuclear plant. Despite the irrational fear of nuclear power, it actually has the least environmental impact of any form of power generation. And it is fairly cheap as well.

Also, hybrid cars won't do you any good. They won't save you any money once you figure in the higher price and the higher maintenance cost, such as replacing the battery pack. Not to mention mining the lithium for those batteries does far more environmental damage than the CO2 eliminated.

So the sooner everyone stops buying into this global warming scam, the sooner we can improve our economies by focusing on real problems and actually fix real environmental problems that we haven't even been paying attention to because of this warming scam.

You mean like the loss of the rainforests and subsequent destruction of soil by McDonald's cattle farmers who don't take care of the land and it becomes useless?

Well all this modern activities surely aren't beneficial to the nature.

What the balls are you talking about "modern activies surely aren't beneficial". Everything "modern" that we have today has had a less efficient and more harmful predecessor. You want to talk about wasting resources and emitting harmful gases? Go back to the industrial revolution-- that was a polluted era. Would you really rather us go back something like that?

People are constantly finding ways to improve on what we have. These "modern activities" are hundreds of times more efficient than their predecessors; That's the whole point of developing them in the first place. The only alternative is to go back to riding horses. And buddy, sorry if I offend you, but fuck that.

Edit: Thought this was relevant.Edit edit:

Despite the irrational fear of nuclear power, it actually has the least environmental impact of any form of power generation. And it is fairly cheap as well.

Honestly, I'd so much rather see the world go to nuclear power than fan fields. Me and nuclear power are like this

Nuclear power is a great source of energy, but it scares people because the media tells them that NUCULER BOMBS ARE BAD LET'S PROTEST AND SING SONGS ABOUT THE GLORY OF FOSSIL FUELS.

Yeah, and when we decide to kill everyone, we just pull the nuclear reactor out of the coolant and let them all meltdown! Fallout 3 for everyone!!!

IT'S JUST LIKE THE MOVIES!

I don't know nearly enough about global warming to say anything about it, but not wasting energy is always a good thing.

you all need an hour away from the computer.

Fans generate a huge amount of electricity. Only thing is they need to be in a wide area, and if the blade brakes fail, all hell breaks loose, and you're out about 3 million dollars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3FZtmlHwcA -Brakes failing to engague
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N4HQv-UyUo&feature=related - Brakes locking
Nuclear power is great, all we need to do is eject the waste into the sun
Keep it burning for a few more seconds.

I don't really buy into global warming. It's all part of earth's 20,000 year cycle. It gets hot, then cold then hot again then cold blah blah blah.
It just so happens when we start to pay attention to the earth's temperature, we see this upward trend of C02 PPM, and everyone panics.

Nuclear power is great, all we need to do is eject the waste into the sun

You know, I was thinking that exact same thing. I mean, where better to put something you need to get rid of than a place where virtually nothing can exist?

Nuclear power is a great source of energy, but it scares people because the media tells them that NUCULER BOMBS ARE BAD LET'S PROTEST AND SING SONGS ABOUT THE GLORY OF FOSSIL FUELS

I watched something that made a good point about things like this. Because of things like nuclear bombs that can blow the shit out of the planet, the word nuclear subconciously starts to mean FUCKING DANGEROUS to a lot of people. Basically, it's just the name that puts most people off. If they can find a way to make a nuclear plant but NEVER mention the word nuclear, not many people would complain (like, say, "Happy Plant" (unless that reminds people too much of marijuana))

Yeah, and when we decide to kill everyone, we just pull the nuclear reactor out of the coolant and let them all meltdown! Fallout 3 for everyone!!!

Of course, in modern plants, starving the reactor of coolant would simply result in the reactor being shut down due to the necessity of coolant to keep the reaction going. In other words, the water acts as a neutron moderator, and without controlling the neutrons, the fission reaction would simply cease.

I don't really buy into global warming. It's all part of earth's 20,000 year cycle. It gets hot, then cold then hot again then cold blah blah blah.
It just so happens when we start to pay attention to the earth's temperature, we see this upward trend of C02 PPM, and everyone panics.

Agreed.
One hour without electricity, apart from a minute financial benefit for the consumer, sounds fairly pointless.

Also, nuclear power is indeed one of the best choices, yet its price/eco-friendly isn't always that good. If only someone were to think of a way to destroy/recycle/re-use the waste instead of storing it in extremely pricy underground waste vaults. Furthermore, poorer countries usually handle their radioactive waste far less efficiently/safely, which could be considered a threat to the environment. Constant aid from more developed nuclear countries is a must, which again costs quite a bit.

Plus older nuclear plants, which are both far unsafer and less efficient should be shut down and replaced with their modern counterparts (colossal investments needed; a fairly utopic idea for most poorer nuclear countries).
We've an old soviet-built 2-reactor (originally planned to have 4) nuclear power plant ourselves (her sister in Chernobyl passed away a while ago). The EU is rushing its shutdown, yet the final closing date is being regularly postponed. No surprise here, as the plant currently supplies 70% of the country with cheap electricity with leftovers to export and profit from. With its shutdown (scheduled in late 2009), the prices of electricity will increase five to ten times here, making it even tougher than it already is for your average citizen. I'm sure the situation's more-or-less the same on any poorer country, making old nuclear power technology quite hard to modernize.

However, these renewals shouldn't end up costing much more than huge wind/solar farms would, so guess I'm all up for top-notch nuclear technology in the end. Just put that cash to proper use.

EDIT:
Speaking of the environment, most NPPs also have as much an effect on the ecosystem as wind farms and such. For e.g the water used to cool them usually comes from natural lakes/rivers, creating a fairly big rise of temperature in the area and thus somewhat changing the local ecosystem.

Supposedly nuclear reactors are dangerous pretty much only when they're old and crap. (cough Chernobyl cough) ... or so i have read.

If they can find a way to make a nuclear plant but NEVER mention the word nuclear, not many people would complain

"Fission Reactor"
But then I guess they'd have to avoid saying "nuclear fission" >_>

If only someone were to think of a way to destroy/recycle/re-use the waste instead of storing it in extremely pricy underground waste vaults. Furthermore, poorer countries usually handle their radioactive waste far less efficiently/safely, which could be considered a threat to the environment.

Nuclear reprocessing helps with this.

What about when they get the fusion going, will it be free, clean power for everyone, or will they find someway to still charge us for it? (besides the cost to maintain transmission lines and whatnot)

Chernobyl only happened because of ignoring a completely obvious problem, not because it was old.

It's true. That accident was human error, not nuclear error.

Nuclear power makes radioactive waste water or something. The only thing we can do is barrel it up and haul it to a bunker where it will sit for the forever. They radioactivity doesn't go away anytime soon, and could take a couple thousand years.

Of course, in modern plants, starving the reactor of coolant would simply result in the reactor being shut down due to the necessity of coolant to keep the reaction going. In other words, the water acts as a neutron moderator, and without controlling the neutrons, the fission reaction would simply cease.

As long as people pay attention and don't press buttons!!

Nuclear power makes radioactive waste water or something.

Simple, just ship the waste in rusty/leaky containers to Australia: SOLVED

We've already got plenty of the stuff. Kangaroos are just mutant rabbits, you know.

LOL. And platypuses are plain freaks of nature.

PB, fission reaction hasnt been perfected yet hasnt it?

Solar power isnt going to work, there just arent enough resources to effectively build enough solar powerplants. Wind energy has its limitations, since you cannot utilize all the energy from the wind.

So tidal and water power combined with nuclear energy would work best. Problem is uranium will one day also get depleted.

this is the worst thing that has eve happened to the enviroment because the reatcors that make the energy arent going to stop for a hour. the energy they normally make is still there so if you dont use it its just going to waste. So if you truly care do like me and pump all the lights up and have evertyhing running for the sake of the enviroment.

So if you truly care do like me and pump all the lights up and have evertyhing running for the sake of the enviroment

wut

Anyway, I've come up with a way to remove all power, economic, and food problems for the entire world. All we have to do is get all the poor and hungry people and put them in giant hamster wheels (with a piece of food hanging in front of them to make them chase after it), to create power. Using one problem to remove another = win.