We are informed here at Rancho LawDog of an upcoming something called “Earth Hour“.
According to sources, “Earth Hour” consists of turning your lights off on 28 MAR 2009 from 2030 to 2130 hours Local Time to — and I quote: “Raise awareness of global climate change”.
Sweet shivering Shiva — do we really need our awareness raised any more about “Global Climate Change”? My paw to Freyja, you can’t turn on the TeeVee without getting (metaphorically speaking) slapped across the mouth by someone yapping about “Gloooo-bal Warming!”
The last time it was an advert featuring a series of terminally cute kids doing someones damnedest to inflict crushing guilt — and a nasty case of diabetes — upon any susceptible adult vis a vis “Climate Change”.
And the sodding National Geographic Channel should just go ahead and change their name to the National Global Warming Channel — because Goddess have mercy on your poor soul if you venture over to “NatGeo” expecting anything other than the verbal equivalent of a kick to the wedding tackle about your failure to prevent “Gloooo-bal Warming”.
Raising any more awareness about Climate Change is about like handing a jar of petrol to some poor bloke running down the street with his hair on fire.
Plus, your “Global Warming” is forecasted to dump a foot or more of snow in the Texas Panhandle this Friday — have we mentioned that the first day of Spring 2009 has come and gone?
Tell you what. To raise some kind of awareness, on 28 MAR from 8:30 PeeEm to 9:30 PeeEm I will have a bloody great bonfire built in my front yard.
Dead trees! Fire! Carbon dioxide by the ton!
World Wildlife Fund … you schmucks.
LawDog
They want awareness of climate change? They can come and shovel my driveway next snow storm.
Just put a reminder in my PDA to turn on every light and to fire up the grill at that time.
Heck, I might let the all 3 household cars idle the entire time.
Fight Global Cooling 🙂
I’m going to turn on every light and electrical appliance I own, start both cars and light up a couple of cigars.
Hopefully I can carbon offset a couple of goreites.
Yeah, sorry. I’m going to be at an NCAA regional tournament hockey game, and anyone who wants to live isn’t going to turn the lights off for an hour.
Lights, BBQ, cigars, all maxed out.
As as many farts as I can produce from a double helping of homemade pinto beans with bacon.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmm bacon!
The only thing that’d be better would be to burn a hippie. Anyone know the flashpoint of patchoulli oil?
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
Well…. that’s an usual way of getting the word out. I’d never even heard of Earth Hour before.
I’m following your and Bob’s lead 🙂
I recall it snowed during my first visit to beautiful San Angelo back in ’81 and the locals acted like it was the Apocalypse…
THE WHOLE WORLD!!!!!!eleventy!!1one is turning out the lights!
Bullpuckey! Hogswallop! Horsefeathers!
Three hundred fourth graders will make their families turn out all the lights. The rest of the world will see that commercial the next day and say “oh yeah, that was last night, huh?
If I had the spare cash to throw away, I’d go rent a few sets of construction kleig lights to have on out in the parking lot for the hour…
Here’s a balance….
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/011072.html#comments
Ian
Ok… So we’re supposed to turn the lights on for that hour, right? 😉
“Global Warming … dumping a foot of snow …”
Oooo! We can’t be having a nationwide financial crisis because … I just got a raise!
All you’ve done with the your snow comment is reveal your own ignorance about statistics and the definition of “global” versus “local”.
The FACT is – the temperature of Earth has shown a definite upward trend over time.
Global Warming _IS_ happening. It’s happening globally, on AVERAGE, over time.
The QUESTION is – how much of that is caused by humans, and how much we can, or should, do about it.
I’m absolutely serious when I say that I’m going to do the following:
Turn on every light that I have.
Turn on every appliance that I own.
Turn on my furnace and open the windows.
Start a fire in my fireplace and light the wood stoves in my shops, barn and garage.
Burn my trash in the burning barrel.
Start every small gas engine I own and let 3 V-8 trucks idle while I take a fourth with a 460 cubic inch engine and do donuts in my front yard.
I might go cut down a tree for good measure.
Yeah you think I’m joking but you’re wrong.
When I have the time I’ll figure out how much electricity the average home consumes in an hour, and how many aluminum cans could be smelted with that amount of electricity. I’ll bet the number of cans is awfully small.
Jim
I am another who is going to tunr every light in the house to the ON position. Might even stand outside and wave a flashlight!
We’ve been pretty impressed down here in SE CT with the amount of “global warming” that has fouled up driving lately.
And then my sister in Seattle tells me (in all seriousness) that when the ice sheets start creeping down over North America and Northern Europe, I’ll believe in anthropogenic global warming. My brain hurts.
And yes, all our lights will be on tomorrow evening. Hell, it’s still too dark to do anything indoors without them, and too cold to be happy outdoors. Or I suppose we could all turn off the lights, and engage in activities which would insure more humans with nasty carbon footprints in say 9 months…..
Re: Cold winters during the global warming panic. One of the talking heads on teevee — and no, I can’t remember which one — was qualifying the term as meaning more energy, and thus more extreme weather. There’s something wrong with that definition, too, but I’m not going to hurt my brain anymore with trying to analyze it. (Is the weather REALLY that much more extreme? I don’t think so.)
I will turn on all of my lights and televisions and start a fire or two.
Everything in the house will be running. I’ll even run the cars in the driveway and let them idle for the hour. I’m sick of this crap being jammed down my throat. In the 70’s everyone thought we were starting another ice age. Now we’re burning up.
Just had a great suggestion from a co-worker….haul out the christmas lights 🙂
I’ll go flying. 12 gallons per hour of good ol’ leaded gasoline.
Screw you, hippies!
Anonymous Coward said:
The FACT is – the temperature of Earth has shown a definite upward trend over time.
Global Warming _IS_ happening. It’s happening globally, on AVERAGE, over time.
The global temperature of Mars has shown an upward trend, too. Can’t blame it on the SUVs, either–they’re solar-powered.
What’s your excuse?
For those interested in the debate and growing scientific doubt about anthropogenic climate change, I highly recommend the website http://www.icecap.us It provides information and links to articles both for and against.
And there’s several inches of global warming blowing sideways past my windows as I type. Hope you’re not called out in the Texas version of this mess, Mr. Lawdog.
LittleRed1
Global climate change used to be called WEATHER untill al gore and associates filled the niche in the gullible market formally held by henny penny.
Ironic that green is a synonym for gullible, isn’t it?
Dave: Turn on the PCL at every airport in radio range too.
I probably won’t remember to do anything special.
I’m told Lawdog should spend that hour working on his perspectives post.
I’ll join the cause. Smoky BBQ, slow cooked.
The QUESTION is – how much of that is caused by humans, and how much we can, or should, do about it.
Anyone that thinks that us puny humans are causing the earth to heat up has been eating to much of the I am so important pie!
She was here before we got here and she will be here when we are gone.
Wise up you self important wind bags!
So you don’t understand the difference between climate and weather. Nice.
I’m a bit of an environmentalist. We should be aware of our impact on each other and nature. I want clean water and wild places
– full of small (or even large) furry animals that I can shoot yummmm venison
If anybody needs me tomorrow night, I’ll be running my hemi-powered Dodge up and down the highway at 110 MPH, with the air conditioning on, in four wheel drive. Getting approximately half a mile per gallon.
Just becauce…
I’ve learned that I can’t control sun spots or the precession of the equinoxes, either. They’re probably my fault anyway, though. Right?
wv = apyrea. Is that “lack of fire” or “lack of heat?” Either way, it means that I should burn something to restore Gaia’s delicate balance, all by myself. You’re welcome.
The damndest thing is that turning off lights, and then turning them on again will play havoc with the grid. Those huge generators will still be turning and the boiler operators will hub hell with the steam during the sudden lowering of demand followed by the huge increase, which may be too much and trip huge breakers. If the steam pressure rises too high, all the energy used to heat the steam will be lost to the atmosphere when it’s vented to keep the boilers from exploding.
Morons to say the least. Send them all to a deserted island and give them a can of beans for a start.
I thought NatGeo was True Crime Serial Killer Channel #3.
Apparently Mother Gaia agrees with you, Lawdog, as Redoubt is busy spending the last week pumping more ash, sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that generations of people working late could ever account for with office lights in skyscrapers.
Hmm. Well, if Redoubt wants to celebrate Earth Hour by hurling another ash cloud into the atmosphere, my current houseguest will have been able to fly out by then, and my next houseguest will have flown in by then (God willing and the ash cloud north or west). I have plenty of food, water, and firewood – bring it on!
(I’ll bet God’s really amused by Alaskan prayers this week. “God, could you visit the ash cloud North on Talkeetna instead? It’s not tourist season yet, and that won’t cut off my flight.” “God, could you visit the ash cloud on Kenai instead? I need to get home to Fairbanks, and who needs to get here from Seattle anyway in winter?” “God, how about western Alaska? I know it’s against prevailing wind patterns, but heck, it’ll make life on the whole road system easier – even if it does cut off trade with Asia…”)
I guess our town is over-eager concerning Earth Hour. We were gifted with a patriotic(?) four hours of no electricty today. Being as it’s the 27th, what wonders may we awaken to tomorrow?
LawMom
And if you read the journals of the Spanish friars in California in the 1500s, you will find chronicled El Nino and years of the ‘warming trend’ before it broke.
Oh, yeah, and in addition to the Internet, he invented algorhythms, too……didn’t he?
LM
The FACT is – the temperature of Earth has shown a definite upward trend over time.
Well, actually: No. It is not. The overall temperature of the earth has not raised at all this century (which we are very nearly a decade into).
In fact, over time, the temperature of the earth rises and falls in accordance with patterns of climate change that we have only the barest understanding of. We grasp the concept of Ice Ages, but not really of the “mini” ice age of a couple hundred years ago. The climate does change, but how much of this is anthropogenic is very debatable.
As for “Earth Hour”–I won’t be turning everything on (too much of a hippie for that), but I’ll be damned if the idea of a bonfire doesn’t sound lovely.
What’s wrong with conservation of resources? There’s only so much coal/nuclear core/diesel fuel to go around. Earth hour won’t do a lick of harm.
I’ll fire up the furnace and cast a couple hundred lead bullets.
Yeah, my family did that last year – though, in our defense, Mom didn’t say “this will save the planet” so much as “this will help our electricity bill”.
Plus, it was fun to hang out in the living room with Mom and read/laptop by candle-light.
The flashpoint of patchouli oil is roughly 200F. That’s about 93C.
Just sayin’.
Why would these fine folks all say human-caused global warming is bull?
http://www.petitionproject.org/
(Well…Momma once told me that, 97% of the time, the answer to any question that starts with the word “why” is: Money. So, ask yourself: Who’s making a bundle on the global-warming hysteria? …And who isn’t?)
“Plus, your “Global Warming” is forecasted to dump a foot or more of snow in the Texas Panhandle this Friday — have we mentioned that the first day of Spring 2009 has come and gone?”
LawDog, normally I love your blog, but today you have found and hit upon one of the things that really irks me in discussions on this subject. Global Warming is not “everything gets warmer all the time”, the change will lead to an increase of the average temperature of each year. Weather will be freaky, and the cold months will generally be colder than usual (although not by as much as the warm months will be warmer).
Global Warming is not disputed by anyone other than crackpots. The only thing that is debated by reasonable people is whether the warming we have evidence of is caused by Man, or if it is completely natural.
That said, screw “Earth Hour”. Its a publicity stunt, plain and simple, and I hate it when publicity stunts pretend that they will have some sort of real impact.
Michael,
Except the actual temperatures world wide have leveled off or dropped a bit over the last decade. Try and keep a sense of perspective. When I was a kid, industrialization and aerosols were going to cause an ice age, as was clearly shown by a couple of bad winters. Then when we got a couple of really scorching summers, suddenly industrialization and aerosols were going to roast us alive for our sins. Clean air, good. Clean water, good. Stampeding us all back to mud huts and an average lifespan of 36 years because folks panic at weather outside of the expected averages, bad.
I’ll believe it’s a problem when Al Gore and Leo DiCaprio start living the lifestyle they want the rest of us to live.
I’m all for doing our part to clean up Mother Earth, but this is ridiculous.
No, I am not going to blow every circuit in the house being rebellious and turning all the lights and appliances on. Neither am I going to turn off every light, the t.v., the electric oven. etc. insanely depriving myself and my family just because a Hollywood storr says this is a good thing to do.
Liken this latest efford at bending the mindset of the American people to the professional sales campaign that put a totally unqualified person in the White House this time around.
Few people seem to get into the facts behind our climate changes.
So, as I’ve told before, around fifty or so years ago (back in the bad old days when school started the first Monday after Labor Day, and ended the last Friday in May) it was the day of the 8th grade banquet. We weren’t as jaded as today’s pre-teens, and were actually EXCITED about it and WENT to it. Wow.
At any rate, it had been in the high 80s, low 90s all week long. Sweltering for those of us up on ladders hanging strips of crepe paper and such.
Still in the 80s at 7 pm. when the boyfriends (driven by their fathers in the family car)picked up the girlfriends (completely covered in pastel-colored net and carnation corsage, and not a sequin in sight).
Along about 9 pm, the banquet and program were over, and we all were going to walk (horrors) the mile or so to the community center for the dance (which, again, horrors, ended for sure at 12 midnight).
It was the 28th of May on the Red River in Texas, and we walked out into snow.
At the time, we had freon in our refrigerators, leaded gas, no catalytic converters (to spew sulfuric acid into the atmosphere), a refinery with no filters in the stackpipes, no spray paint, and……no Al Gore!
How on earth did we survive?
LawMom
I’m going to keep the lights on and make a WHOLE bunch of reloads. Not only is it recycling, good for the environment, but it makes Eric Holder cry.
I’m glad we had an Earth Hour last night..
.. it let me locate a couple of lights that aren’t working and places where my illumination is not optimal.
Yeah, we turned it ALL on for about 90 minutes last night.
Not because I’m wasteful – ask the family, I am forever turning off lights in the house (occasionally in a room where there is still an occupant…).
No, the lights were on to make a statement. The envirowackos can pound sand.
More Nukes and Drill here, Drill now!!!
I did not light a fire last night, but that was because it was raining volcanic ash down from the sky, and I didn’t want to draw outside air into the house.
Earth hour was earthing all over me, and let me tell you, it was doing more for global warming than I ever could.
Some day I’m going to head back up to Fairbanks and figure out who the guy is that prints and distributes the bumper stickers you see popping up after the first thirty-below-zero cold snap every winter: “Alaskans for Global Warming.”
Global Warming? Excuse me! I live in Houston, its march and its fracking COLD. Friday night got down somewhere right around either side of 40 and last night it was supposed to be around 39 or thereabouts.
global warming? Hey ecosimps..kiss my fat hairy backside!
Oh BTW I too did the anti earth hour and turned on most everything in the house..after I got back from a meeting with a group I recently joined that wants to take our gov’t back from Obama, his minions and the other pinheads. We were supposed to read the constitution but only got thru the Declaration of Independence. Which is fine..we had some lively discussions
Anonymous Said “What’s wrong with conservation of resources? There’s only so much coal/nuclear core/diesel fuel to go around. Earth hour won’t do a lick of harm.”
oh contraire dude..as to the power..go nuclear..there’s plenty and its CLEANER than coal, proven fact..though I don’t have the link handy this second. As to deisel.gas..um go cry wolf elsewhere. There’s at according to the Saudi’s 40yrs of oil to still be pulled up. In one shale oil field alone in…Utah I believe it was [but its been a year since I read the article] 3TIMES [and thats a conservative estimate] than the Saudi reserve estimates. BTW little bandied about factoid for everyone who talks about dependance on Middle Eastern oil ad OPEC..the US gets 75-80% of its oil from 2 places..Canada and Mexico.
Damn! I missed it. I was planning to turn on extra lights, run my truck for an hour, and turn up the heat, but I was out of town. I even flew on a small commercial jet, when what I wanted was a really big carbon footprint.
Cooked a pizza.
Left the oven light on.
I think this is far more sinister than just a publicity stunt. An important part of any indoctrination or brainwashing is getting the subject to turn the ideology into an action. No matter how small the action is, it’s an important step towards total conformity. Add in some escalating role playing/repetitions and you’re well on your way to obedience without question. This is especially effective on children and I guarantee that schools all over the country are going to be browbeating the younglings with the absolute importance of participating in this newly found ritual.
“No matter if the science is all phony, there are collateral environmental benefits. . ,
Climate change provides the greatest chance to bring about justice and equality in the world.” — Christine Stewart, Canadian Environment Minister.
I’m sorry but my son and I, after we’d heard about this steller event, decided to participate. During that hour we are going to turn on every light in the house, crank up the AC with the windows and doors open, and I’m going to start my “evil” SUV and let the engine run. We all have to observe in our own fashion!
Did I participate? Yes, all t.v.’s and lights were on!
Is the planet getting warmer on average…yeah.
But, we need to consider geologic time. Over the course of time (not recent history), from what can be examined, the planet has warmed and cooled. Without our ‘help’, influence, whatever.
This is NOT NEW!
Gee, and all we did was turn on all the lights in the house! It never occurred to me to burn anything. Too bad. It would have been fun!
ARRRRGH! I missed it!
I was gonna turn on all my lights and start up my car and my motorcycle in protest!
I am sort of Libertarian in my political nature, with some occasion hard rights and hard lefts depending on the issue. On this one, I remain in a dilemma. I agree that the Earth Hour stunt is silly. I have heard, read, and witnessed effects of global climate change (so I’m inclined to believe it’s happening), and I care about our planet’s health. What I can’t swallow is that mankind alone could possibly be responsible for such an enormous claim. I just can’t buy it.
I’ve been “green” all my life – thanks Mom! – but that was because it’s logical and economical (recycling, turning lights off, etc.). This current trend to market “green” thinking alarms me no end. And, for independent thinkers like readers (and the writer!) of this blog, it sticks in our craw. It powers legislation, behavior, marketing, political posturing, and all sorts of public forums. And “green” is so little understood. Like thinking the phrase “global warming” means a gradual upwards climb of temperatures that one can feel locally. 🙂
So, like other vague threats such as “terrorists” (real but unknowable), politicos are able to direct public opinion and pass laws to enforce changes to correct this vague threat. Hm. Vague outside threats that gov’t uses to control the masses. 1984 anyone?
A very inconvenient truth being that the windbag had every light on in his Tennessee mansion during the Earth Hour…
I guess he only has to talk the talk, huh ?
Global warming is an interesting subject (despite the ridiculousness of Earth Hour). Fact is, the earth has warmed up considerably in the last 12000 years, when the last ice age dissipated.
There have been times in the earth’s geologic past that there’s been absolutely no glacial structures and the sea levels were something like 50′ feet higher than they are now. There have been times when the earth was considerably more glaciated and the sea levels were up to 250′ lower than now.
Arguing that since local or regional temperatures are below (or above) normal is a false argument in rebutting global temperature change.
It seems the earth’s temperature is affected by a number of things, one of which is the amount of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, water vapour, methane) in the atmosphere. Other factors include the precession of the earth’s orbit (Milankovitch cycle) which affects the amount of sunlight reaching the extremities or polar regions, the amount of particulate matter in the atmosphere (think volcanoes or meteor collisions), and the configuration of the earth’s tectonic plates.
Speaking of tectonic plates, the earth is currently configured for a moderate temperature. The north pole is basically a mostly landlocked ocean (Arctic Ocean) and the south pole consists of a large continent (Antarctica). Thus the heat exchange between the poles is mitigated, allowing for dynamics such as the Gulf Stream.
Another interesting thing is the albedo effect. This concerns how much sunlight is reflected back into space by the surface. Ice reflects a considerable amount of light. The icier something is the less chance that the sun’s rays will warm it up. Meanwhile, land and sea not covered by ice absorb heat more readily. Either one can lead to runaway effects.
My thoughts on the subject:
1) it is impossible to tell if the effects of the industrial age (that being the last 200 years or so) has a noticeable effect on the climate. 200 years in geologic science is impossibly too short of a time to apply any meaningful statistical analysis.
2) steps taken to mitigate any industrial effects on the climate should not have substantial economic affect. declaring the polar bear as endangered (without sound scientific data I might add) and therefore causing a power plant in, say, NM to spend millions of dollars in anti-pollution devices is just ludicrous.
3) we need to stop or slow our consumption of cheap energy. We’ve been taking a free ride for a long time and it will one day come to a screeching halt.
4) it is not a good idea to saturate your atmosphere with greenhouse gases. Witness Venus, where the surface is a toasty 860F.
Regardless, things are bound to get warmer, and I don’t necessarily mean the climate.
Official Song of Earth Hour:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzCAnp-WpZc
I spent my day building trucks. Big, honkin’ pickup trucks with V8 engines.
WV: Modyst. What Paris Hilton’s dresses are not.
check out ontario power’s result of this dumbness, fossil power -4% atomic -0.1% hydro- all the rest of the “savings” ho ho ho