Just out of curiosity:

[capri0mni]

Can anyone around here point me to some somewhat reliable stats on "Earth Hour," that happened this last weekend?

Roughly how many people turned out their lights? and

Roughly how much energy was actually saved? etc.

The only kind of thing I've been able to find is on blogs -- mostly from people who are opposed to the idea of global warming, and were trumpeting the fact that the whole thing was a farce...

But really, what are the numbers, if numbers are to be had?

Comments

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

Ontario experienced a 5% drop in power usage during that hour, according to local news sources.

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_21154.aspx

Honestly, I don't think turning out the lights once a year for an hour does any good. You might as well go to bed ten minutes earlier once a week for a year. This went right over a lot of people's heads. We're supposed to use this to make ourselves think about whether we need to have the lights on as much as we do on a regular basis.

I do already know of a couple of people who say they enjoyed candlelight dinners and board games so much that they're going to sit in the dark regularly, and I heard a restaurant employee say that she wants to have candlelight dinner hours more often. ^^

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, that just it: It's not just the statisitcs of what happened during that one hour, it's how you use the statistics to educate people.

If delaying turning on your lights by one hour after dusk is proven to be doable, and not so bad, and furthermore, saves X amount of dollars off the family budget, than the idea that conservation becomes a reasonable, rather than radical, idea.

And that's the point.

(And if it can also be promoted as helping the family dynamic, making marriages more romantic, and opening dialog between parents and children, so much the better).

[alto2.livejournal.com]

I never even heard of this...

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Well, that, in itself, says something about how effective the event was/is/will be, and how much media and public attention it gets.

I. myself, learned about it from my LJ f'list first, particularly indefatigable42 and nexstarman. Then, on Friday night, there was a brief (30-second, maybe?) mention of it on one local news station, about a local restaurant joining in.

Here is a Wikipedia article about the global event (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Hour)

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

It was huge in Ontario, but I don't know where else it was being actively promoted. It started out in Australia last year. I didn't know about it beforehand then.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

I gather, from the Wikipedia article, that it began in Australia last year, so I think you're right on the curve. :-)

[alto2.livejournal.com]

Well, bear in mind that I no longer watch TV news and read very little in the papers. I am not completely news-ignorant, and I hear about big stuff via other means, but too much news stresses me out, and I just plain don't have time for it anymore. That said, I AM on the mailing lists of several environmental groups, so you'd think I'd have heard about it there. Go figure.

Thanks for the article; I'll give it a look.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Well, this is the first year it's been international, and I figure it takes at least a couple of years for an event to become "An Event," and another couple of years for "An Event" to become "An Opportunity to Discuss."

So, there's always next year :-)

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