Earth Hour? Ok, so it%26#039;s Earth Day %26amp; I started thinking about Earth Hour....

It was a reasonably good idea.. but.... if you think about it this way, why did we do this?

24 hrs a day - 8 hrs of Sleep = 16 hrs
16 hrs - 8 hrs of work = 8 hrs
8 hrs - 1 hr of commute time for work = 7 hrs

So that means that in 24 hrs, only 7 are really used in the home, if we are lucky. And 17 where we are not there and using power. And also, like most, I work more than 8 hours, so that means I%26#039;m only home for 4-5.

We have big windows, so no need for extra light. We are always in the living room, and don%26#039;t leave any lights on elsewhere.

And yes, you use power at work (most of us), but, things are shut down for lets say 10-14 hrs a day.

So how does 1 hr of total darkness really help? Other than a great night to gaze at the stars?

Best Answer

It is a %26quot;drop in the bucket%26quot; compared to what we *should* and *must* start doing, but it is an extremely easy way to educate people that if they start thinking, there are a lot of things that we take for granted that we can really live without.

Unplugging and turning off items when we are not *actively* using them not only saves money and energy, but also the pollution caused by that power generation, and the use of raw materials (uranium, coal, gas) and/or the destruction of habitat and natural environment (dams for water power, windmills, large areas for solar)

It is a VERY interesting excercise to take any single item - a newspaper, a radio, an apple - whatever item - and try to think about and list ALL the factors that went into its production, transportation, consumption, and disposal. Include such things as the worker that mined or picked or grew it, how it got packed, stored, shipped, used, thrown away. Then go to the next layer of the onion and think of that worker%26#039;s use of resources, the fuel that went into that truck, the natural space that go ttorn up to build the store, the animals displaced by the garbage dump, etc.

Guaranteed that you will not be able to do any kind of a thorough job in the space of one page or one hour...

Asker's Rating:

Excellent Answer! Now only if all of us thought this way %26amp; yes, it%26#039;s never ending...

And thanks everyone, atleast we all know we%26#039;re all thinking the same thing.

Other Answers (9)

• Appliances draw electricity even if the switch is %26#039;off%26#039;. The idea was to stop drawing power.
  What would have really made a difference was if the monstrous buildings downtown would have pulled the plug overnight - when no one is there anyway - instead of keeping the damn things %26#039;lit up%26#039; for advertising.
  I did notice, however, that the McDonalds on my block shut down the lights on it%26#039;s giant %26#039;M%26#039;.
  HAHA - keep hope alive!! (that%26#039;s irony)
• It just helps because today if you do not use power, and you spread the awarness, tomorrow many others will not. And that will help. When just someone is doing something alone no one cares, but when you spread awarness in large group people will notice it and will learn about the awarness.
• You%26#039;re right, that one hour seems very insignificant. But if you put it on a large scale and have 1 million people do it, that%26#039;s 1 million hours of energy saved. Small contribution from each individual for a significant aggregate result.
• For earth hour I did one better- instead of shutting off the lights at at 8pm for one hour, I shut them off at midnight for 8 hours ;-)
• It%26#039;s just another gimmick conjured up by someone who wanted to feel better about themselves.
• Even though it wont make any difference, it just raises awareness.
• its very confused
• I have to agree.
• i agree with the above response