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Last updated on May 20th, 2017 at 09:49 am
Stephen Stratford sends news of Earth Hour’s triumph in New Zealand:
Transpower spokeswoman Rebecca Wilson said power consumption on Saturday night during Earth Hour was 335 megawatts compared to an average of 328 megawatts for the previous two Saturdays.
According to Earth Hour spokesman Charlie Stevens: “Earth Hour wasn’t ever going to be about the (electricity) results.” That’s not what they were saying prior to Earth Hour, which evidently was more about free ads for a novelty night in Melbourne restaurants.
With all due respect, Tim, Charlie Stevens is right. Earth Hour wasn’t ever about reducing electricity usage. Anyone who isn’t an idiot will realize that such a temporary and superficial change in behavior has no significant effect.
No, Earth Hour was about getting large numbers of people to do whatever pointless thing they were told to do by Our Green Masters. It was a demonstration of political power—like a bodybuilder flexing his muscles in front of an audience. The message (intended for politicians and the news media) was: “Look how many votes and how much money we command!”
Unfortunately for Our Green Masters, the demostration was a flop.
#2, Yes, what good is power if you can’t show it off?
Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2008 03 31 at 10:15 AM • permalink
Majorly OT, but this intrigues me. Good luck to Bolta if he’s going for it!
#4 – I just saw it, too. He’d be great in that place but it’d be a loss to the Hun. Good luck to him!
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2008 03 31 at 10:43 AM • permalink
OT/ My Bad, I just bought a 1979 Z28 Camaro.
Now I’m in a quandary, do I get rid of the 2004 BA XR8, the 1978 ZH Fairlane with 383 Cleveland Stroker or the 1966 VC Valiant Regal 225 slant six sedan?
Or do I leave my lights off for the year?
Posted by deadparrot on 2008 03 31 at 10:59 AM • permalink
# 8 – Damnit! It’s still the 31st where I am so I didn’t even think of it.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2008 03 31 at 11:00 AM • permalink
On Bolta: I do hope it is a AFD joke cos Australia’s biggest left-wing blogger (according to himself, anyway) is all over it like a rash. The celebrations of Daryl Mason have begun.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2008 03 31 at 12:06 PM • permalink
I clicked your link Villeurbanne, and now I feel thoroughly dirty.
No doubt tomorrow that incredibly honest, reliable and credible site “BoltWatch” will be in throes of excitement at the idea. I wonder if any will cheer that they have vanquished the evil Beast of Bolt, because according to them, he can’t handle a bit of criticism.
Just had a look at Bolt Watch. They’re apparently still asleep, but their comparison between this site and Andrew’s will miff Andrew a bit:
Tim Blair … is roughly the NSW equivalent*. Only his blog is even more disturbing.
* These lefties seem a little bit parochial given the reach of this blog. Still, congratulations all.
Just when you thought it was safe to turn on the lights, I get this e-mail from my office facilities manager:
Darn Kids!
The Statewide Terrorism & Intelligence Center (US) has learned that April 1, 2008 (and this is not an April Fools joke – that I am aware of), young people from around the world will be “rising up to show the world that they refuse to fool around with climate change and our future.” This protest is being coordinated by the Energy Action Coalition (EAC) and they are calling for rallies at gas stations or representative’s offices, Critical Mass bike rides, office occupations, spank the bank visits (I’m not making this stuff up), etc.
You KNOW they are going to blame that on us in general and you in particular, right Tim?
Posted by MikeTheLibrarian on 2008 03 31 at 03:53 PM • permalink
Colin Power is a April Fool.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 03 31 at 06:12 PM • permalink
My Sister In Law (labor voting buffoon that she is) decided to drive her 20 year old clunker of a car up to Mt Coot-Tha here in Brisbane to “watch the lights go out”.
By her account there were hundreds of other people doing the same thing so what should have been a 2 minute drive up to the look-out took over 20 minutes.
20 minutes of carbon emitting traffic jam to watch earth hour “save the planet”.
Oh, and then there was the trip back down which took even longer.
And what’s worse, she sees no irony in this activity at all.
If the idea of earth hour was to “raise awareness” it’s not working. These people just don’t get it at all.
Like I say, these wankers don’t even care about the thing they are posing for, they are just poseurs – and electrophobes.
They appear to hate efficient electricity, but love CO2. But then, you know that it is all about YOUR waste, not theirs.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2008 03 31 at 07:39 PM • permalink
#1 Villeurbanne, you mis-overestimate. Don’t forget that electric light CO2 was replaced by candle CO2.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2008 03 31 at 07:41 PM • permalink
#19 – we similiarly were warned about possible protests against us (a coal mine) to occur today. Some group called Rising Tide, with “Fossil Fools” day.
I think their original plan was to have some sort of action in Central Queensland, but it looks to have been limited to company HQs in Brisbane. I’m guessing that lack of interest led to a downscaling of the original plan.
People of Brisbane, be on the lookout for papier mache heads.
I did a few back-of-the-envelope scratchings this morning based on the 1000 megawatt saving the ABC was carping on about. At about 0.239 tonnes of carbon emissions per magawatt, Earth Hour would have saved about 239 tonnes of CO2 escaping into the atmosphere. Another site told me that the average US vehicle produces 12,000 lb or about 5.4 tonnes of C02 a year. Earth Hour, then, was the equivalent of taking less than 45 cars off the road for a year.
Sounds OK until you remember that Australians bought 1,000,000 new cars last year.