Earth Hour 28th March!
It’s a pretty exciting night for Australians. Earth Hour began in Sydney as an initiative by the City of Sydney Council and now it’s a huge global event with over 50 million people taking part last year. This year, they’re aiming for 1 billion people, which is a huge goal but if we all do our bit we can help make a difference.
Got some questions about Earth Hour? We’ve got the Answers!
What’s the point of Earth Hour?
It only exists to raise awareness of energy usage and the benefits of conservation. In reality, it does nothing in the way of actually significant energy usage reduction…
The hope of the creators is that this event will get people thinking about their energy choices the entire year. More
What should I do about Earth Hour as I have an event planned?
Perhaps you could incorporate it by turning out main lights in the hall for one minute. I probably wouldn’t turn them all out because who knows what might happen. Or perhaps you could set up a donation jar at the entrance and then donate the money to WWF, which is the organisation who organised Earth Hour. Have fun! More
How does wasting energy promote global warming?
Well, first of all, one of the main gases that cause global warming is carbon dioxide.
By saving energy, the power station that generates electricity to power your house doesn’t have to generate as much energy. Currently, the main method of generating energy is to burn coal, which produces a lot of carbon dioxide.
So, in short, we save energy –> power station doesn’t need to generate a lot of energy –> power station doesn’t need to burn too much coal –> less carbon dioxide is given off –> less carbon dioxide means slower global warming. More
Need more of a reason to join the cause? Check out this video from the organisers.
If you’ve got any more questions about global warming or Earth Hour, visit the Environment category to get your answers. Add your photos and videos of the night to this Flickr group.
How about you, how will you be spending Earth Hour tomorrow night?
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Oh I love that video – it made me a bit teary. I’m definitely supporting earth hour after that. I’ve just called up a few friends and we’re going to have an antipasto picnic at home with some candles and glasses of wine. Time for a good chat with no distractions! Knowing us, we’ll end up talking so much we’ll forget to turn the lights on at 9:30!!
Turning your light off for 1 hour isn’t going to accomplish anything, the power will still be generated if you want to achieve something, get the powerstations to shut down for an hour!
This is one of the dumbest things I have heard of and it is to Sydney, Australia’s everlasting shame that it was cooked up there a few years ago. I’m all for sensible conservation but it has to go on 24 / 365.
If we really wanted to save energy we’d close shopping malls on Sundays and after 7pm every night. That would actually make a difference and would be a step in the right direction.
Nobody who has a clue of how coal fired (or oil fired) power stations actually run could have dreamed this rubbish up. It is utter twaddle and typical of the deep greens, who ignore all physical realities if they conflict with their pet ideas. Actually it’s almost too stupid even for them, it looks like a public relations beat-up.
How many turbines will be shut down for this hour? Exactly none. It takes hours to get a turbine up to operating temperature to avoid wrecking the thing due to thermal shock. So they will have to leave the things running on part load and the same with the boilers that have to be kept up to temperature. Meanwhile industry runs, shopping malls stay open, traffic keeps moving and water and sewage pumps still have to run.
This nonsense may even contribute to global warming because of the inefficiency of using power stations at less than full load.
I cant support it this year, i can at least turn my own light off, but not all.
I dont understand how they can work out how many people turn off their lights in the world, or even get a close guess.
Man made global warming is a crock, climate change is natural, and the only benefits of Earth hour is you don’t have to pay electricity bills for one hour. Big Whoop.
If you were all serious about “saving the planet” you’d be out there planting more trees and not littering.
I LOVE THIS VIDEO in 2007 my family in sydney turned off our lights and we did it in 2008 and we’re doing it today!!! YEY for earth hour. But I think that we should do it more often, like 2 every year.
earth hour hmmm , while i think it’s a good idea to look after the earth , i hate having hippie green tree huggers ram the philosophy down my throat , so come earth hour , every single light in my house will be turned on just out of spite & principle against a very vocal minority of neonazi green movement al gore butt kissers
It is a wonderful opportunity to reflect in the glow of a few candles for an hour and realise how much we take for granted the convenience of switching on an electrical outlet for light. To light up the sportsground tonight for the Sydney Swans game v St Kilda would take up a fair bit of coal. Go Swannies!!!
in answer to how i will be spendin earth hour tonight -
LOTS of candles
and the WHOLE night i’m gonna go without technology – no tv, net (facebook – thats big for me) and no lights even after 9.30 
GO EARTH HOUR! its one of the best things we can do for our environment – and its free!! its more than free – it actually SAVES money 
so why wouldn’t you do it???
HAVE FUN TONIGHT EVERYONE!!!
ill be spending it prob, walking around the house banging into walls, haha joking
Simple: All lights out! Ipod blaring!
i am so definetly turning off our lights! my friends and me are going to get together and eat and talk!! i watched this video at school last year to!!
You need to change your living habbits. There is too much symbolism here. After turning out the lights you will down to a pub, a friends hom, blog, spam, watch porno, listen to Kylie and do all those things you consider necessary but are nothing more than wasteful luxuries that not only kill you early but also imposes a burden on those who want to live.
We worship animals as a manifestation of life itself. You laugh at it. We had technology having invented maths you credit the Arabs for. You kill cows and sheep but protect foxes and poodles because aw..they’re so cute. Then you spend billions on raping the earth to feed the pets you breed to satisfy your need for company. Yet you ahave the world of diversity you call wogs, Haji’s Chinks and Niggers.
Its time you stopped believing that your existence is somehow inextricably tied to that of ours in the developing world. It is not. Any connection is purely coincidental.
We will now exercise our rights to being the new Romans like you were when it was prosperous in your nick of the woods. We cannot be your lungs, your rainmakers and your laboratories for your failed experiments whether in war or in peace.
Turn off the lights?? it went out a long time ago where you are.
Gopal Raj Kumar
i’ll be trying to entertain year 9’s by getting them to try and not use anything electric for a whole hour at my younger sister’s birthday party!! think its time to play an old game of truth or dare haha it should be a very busy and interesting evening! =]
Earth hour is a great idea, but how does it work collectively if we are all in different time zones?
I think that Earth Hour should be once a month instead of once a year and that the local Councils should be actively involved and turn off the street lights as well.
OMG!! im only 12 and i got told at school about earth hour in 2007 and our familly thought the power stations will turn our electricity off and we also thought that in 2008 but now our whole familly are going to sit down and eat with candles and we might fall asleep on the floor by then LOL!!!
I’ll be out stealing stuff. It’s the best time when there are no lights on and nobody can see you. I hope I get a lot of stuff this year, last year wasn’t too bad but if I get a few mates together we should be able to clean up. Go Earth Hour………..can’t wait!
That sounds like fun.
earth hour is a great way for all of us to take part in saving our planet.its a global event and should be taken seriously….so come on everyone join in and save our planet!!! its only for an hour but if your feeling extra generous why not go for the whole night???it will make a big difference!!!:)
Earth hour is a great cause.
We should really get the whole world to join.
Actually, this is the first year that my family is doing it. My parents and grandparents have never heard of Earth hour. I told them about it last week, and they were abit against it because have no electricity in the house wouldn’t be that fun. But after showing them this video and researching some facts, they’re all very supportive of it now.
EVERYONE SHOULD REALLY PARTICIPATE!!!!!!
Have a great Earth Hour everyone!!!!!
You know what I will will be doing on Earth Hour? I will simply be continuing my life with the same amount of light and heat that I have enjoyed throughout my entire life. Global warming is a cleverly contrived anti-human hoax, designed to romanticise poverty and make you live in darkness, literally in this case. You need the Light to open your eyes!
KEEP THE LIGHTS ON!!!
This is a chance for both of u make love in the dark. lol
I’ll be spending it doing homework by a torches and candle lights but mum prob wont let me. Or I’ll just watch tv.
I’m going in to Federation Square to the Earth Hour concert featuring Augie March. The concert will be powered by energy generated by cycling.
I will spend Earth Hour under my sun lamp with the air con on. It will make the same difference
Global warming must be taken seriously.
I will sit in the PUB and have a few coldies
ill be whatching tv with all my lights on with the aircon on and surfing the net
I was going to go to bed and have sex with my girlfriend in the dark, but the I realised that that would probable release more CO2 than simply sitting in front of the TV, with the lights on…. What now!
Powere saved during Earth Hour is in fact “not saved”. One cannot and will not shut down a coal fired power station for one hour while Eath Hour prevails.. It is not viable.. The reactor rods at the nuclear plant will not be withdrawn either.. There is too much re start up proceedure to go through. And more energy is used while restarting than actually leaving the generators on line. We are being coaxed into saving energy so as to free up carbon credits for industry so no matter how much the people save it will be always used by someone else..
I feel very proud of myself. I will be turning off my lights and electrical goods for the entire night……however I must admit, it is because I am going to have dinner with friends. If I were at home I would turn off lights and most electrical items (except the telly). I would watch tv by candlelight.
For those who are interested, the net effect of ‘Earth Hour’ to the nearest whole number, is a zero percent reduction in carbon output for the day.
That’s why I’ll be putting extra lights on. The Earth hour ideologues want to make the whole planet as dim as they are. I refuse to be part of their foolish scheme, and choose this way to demonstrate my opposition.
LOL WATCHING TV, AND TURNING ALL MY LIGHTS ON AND PLAYING ON THE COMPUTER!!!
YEAH THAT VIDEO WAS AWESOME. I am so doing earth hour and if you don’t youd better have a good reason! y’hear?
lol. well if you don’t its not my problem i just felt like saying something. Yeah but im still doing earth hour itll be heaps fun and good for the earth and yeh.
well… yeh.
I will be spending earth hour, with every light switch turned on, 3 plasmas turned on, the surround sound on all tvs blarring and the dishwasher and dryer working over time. I will then after heating the water in my spa have a spa, then drain all the water out, yep straight down the drain. then will fill it up again and heat it again. what a great earth hour it will be, cheers
don’t believe in global warming i believe that it was created by greenies and people with environment degrees, What is the evidence that the world is suffering climate change. I believe that yes the world is decaying but in the end the creator of the world is coming back. When it comes down to people blaming cows for farting which creates green house gases I wonder why
Watching The Bill on our 46″ LCD.. with the lights off, ofcourse
Great, but not much activity in my country http://www.stichtingmilieunet.nl/andersbekekenblog/?p=6865
It makes me so proud to be Australian. I had no idea it was us who started the Earth Hour. Thanks to all our friends around the world for joining us in this great cause.Together we CAN make a difference.It melts the heart to see what we can all do if we put war aside, and live for the better of the whole wonderful world we all share.
I’ll be turning on all my lights, stereo, computer for the full earth hour.
Watching TV in the dark, of course.
Wow – that vid gave me goosebumps….I’ll do Earth Hour.
I think we’ll have one hour with just the candle light. Come and join in, after all, its for a good cause =]
So EXCITED, went without power for 5 hours today without previous notification so am totally looking forward to EarthHour tonight! Just that further hour to send the food that has turned, to total putrification! Not your fault, just peed off with the powers that be! All the best to your cause but can’t support tonight…ask my power company!!!
well I have plenty of gas, so maybe just releasing some!!
Global warming? Hah! Greenhoax, more like.
I’ll b watching TV with my PC switched on.
Completely ignoring it…. by the way all you so-called environmentally-friendly people who plan on using candles, bear in mind that you are actually causing more damage to the environment than if you left the lights on,,,, News flash people… during last year’s Earth Hour there was more co2 emitted than if nothing had been done … What a joke!
We and our neighbours will be tuirning ON all the lights in our homes to celebrate technology and to show that we arent fooled by those who are making up global warming nonsense.
We should all celebrate light and power and not live like communist countries who oppress their people into believing climate change is man made.
Theurn on your lights and celebrate ELECTRICITY!
Earth Hour is a pig-ignorant hybrid spawned by self-interested enviro-loons who want to be taken seriously, self interested quacks posing as scientists desperate for funding, self-interested politicians who know how to make use of the latest fad concern and self-interested, partisan journalists who are too lazy to follow up claims to their factual basis.
Educate yourselves with a real video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr5O1HsTVgA
I will be spending “Earth Hour” with every single light and appliance straining at 110% capacity. I’ll be leaving the Neo-Luddites to their self-imposed dark age.
Just stop and think what happens when if as you hope, thousands turn off their power at once and then an hout later, they switch back on??
Generators dont just stop or start producing electricity in a few seconds, it takes time to dump the already generated electricity and then fired up when the demand occurs.
To me that will waste more energy and create more so called pollutants than leaving the lights on.
We can never do without electricity so I would rather concentrate my efforts on how to use and produce it more efficiently with as little impact as possible.
Getting on the plonk and sitting in the dark munching pizza doesnt sound a very constructive way to combat Global warming.
Me too!! We don’t usually use much power, have flourescent lights, solar hot water, but tonight, we have our fridge, one tv, 3 computers and our ps3 on… not a lot for a family of 5, with 3 of them being teens.. such a fantastic idea.. i hope everyone does something.. it was cool seeing christchurch taking part, with the cathedral turning off its lights, as that is where i am from (now in perth WA).. cmon peoples, do your bit!!
I’ll be doing nothing probably make sure i leave all the lights on who cares? me no………………
ill spend it playing my ps3, cause it needs to live.sorry.
I prepared a picnic, gathered the kids with their torches, switched off the mains to the house and spent almost two hours at the local park. We had a great time. While at the park I got a SMS from the alarm company to say that the power to our system was switched off and I replied inviting them to join us for Earth Hour.
Earth Hour is a gimmick driven by deluded fools.
I spent earth hour gogin around to peopple houses telling them to turn the lights off,
I turned off my laptop, and then realised it was running by the battery power! lol
But all the family turned headed off to the beach and watched the city from the other side in darkness.
They should make this every month
Btw, I’m 11 years old, so sorry for any misunderstandings due to my spelling…
i pent it playing on my computer
With a bunch of mates playin computers in the dark
So much for the scam of Global Warming!
My area has just had an almighty black-out -
lasting 7 hours.
How’s that for saving the electricity?
How will I be spending earth hour?
By turning ON every light in the place, playing music, having the TV on as well….
What an absolute wank……
Earth Hour = an evangelical idiology based on absolutely NO FACTS whatsoever….
The Earth has actually been cooling since the early 90’s…
There is absolutely no scientific evidence that there is MAN MADE GW….sure the Climate is changing, but so it has for millions of bloody years….where were all the nasty factories,and carbon producers 1000’s of years ago?
I’m waiting for the answer……..
I rest my case…..what an absolute joke….
You have all been sucked into colluding with this false concept. Wake up and stop making these people rich on your ignorance.
Its all just nature,and mother earth always has ways of making life miserable for us all. We will pay and pay dearly for this insane proposal.
I will be ignoring their plan for attention and you should too.
i spent the night with lights blazing
Last night I met a friend after windsurfing at Sandgate and we had a BBQ by the beach by candlelight…was disappointed to see that Redcliffe across the Bay only put their lights out for a few minutes rather than an hour but at least they have made a start.
Earth Hour? I did that. All the lights were off here (but I did it between 2 and 3am).
I won’t be turning my lights off, we have ours off every single night any other time so why should one night be any different? Just because the television tells them to do so they automatically do it, they should turn all electricity they aren’t using off anyway.
Turning on all my lights.
Yep, thats right, any view other than that of those who are all for it are taken off the replies….how hopless are you lot….
I beieive in man made global warming,
I also beleive in the Easter Bunny
Loch Ness Monster
and the Y2K Bug
Go hug a tree you misguided losers….
You are a joke…hehehheheh
yep what a party
Earth Hour sends the wrong message and is therefore dangerous.
Well meant individuals energy saving efforts will NOT make a difference whatsoever to anything.
There are more then 6 billion people on this planet and most do only use a fraction of the energy now of what they will be using very soon once they catch up with our standard of living.
TATA started producing 800 inexpensive Nano cars per day and China commissions a new coal fired power station presently every day………
The effort that is put in Mickey Mouse technologies like wind and solar will make the problem worse not better and sadly these so called renewables will prolong the use of fossil fuels; but maybe this is exactly the intension of the fossil fuel supplying countries and companies?
We doun’t need more silly ideas, we need real solutions fast and that means to develop new generations of nuclear power stations, thorium technology as well nuclear fusion fast; more and more environmentalist with common sense have come to this conclusion like Stephen Tindale, Mark Lynas, Chris Goodall, Lord Chris Smith, Patrick Moore, James Lovelock to only name a few.
Only the advancement of smart and advanced technologies will save the planet, – humans have not changed for it least the last 4,000 years, they will not change but adapt and that is the most important factor that needs to be considered.
If we would have NOT stopped to advance nuclear power 40 years ago we probably would not have the climate change problem in the fist place now.
If we don’t take the right action now fast – then “Earth Hour” could be a daily involuntarily occurrence combined with climate refugee problem of unimaginable proportions.
All Earth Hour does is, it will give some people a false good warm environmental feeling and then after turning the lights back on they probably take a 20 minute hot shower…………………..
EARTH HOUR IS BOGUS
let me give u one statistic
if 1 billion people turn all there lights off it would be the equlivent of turning off all chinas emissions for ………wait for it …….. 6SECOUNDS wow what a waste of time
.
anyone who wants to do anything about global warming go and tell china to shut down……ohhh hang on they are buying americas debt…… dont think so so for all you greenys out there turn your lights off and fell glad in the fact that it takes more enegry to heat the light globe turning it on thatn just leaving it in for 45 mintues……think about it before you belive it
I will take no notice of Earth Hour. It is just a feel good exercise for wannabe greenies and will have absolutely no effect other than to give people an experience of the stone age.
Might burn a few old tyres as the extra CO2 is good for my vegie garden.
my earth hour turned into earth hour n a half with out even trying. maybe longer next year or have earth hour every month
I was working last night so my house was all dark anyway as it is 3 nights a week.
we had a great night. we put the Air con on high, the heater on high and ALL the lights on in the House! We figure the amount of energy that our city tried to save……we wasted
power companies in ausralia just turn on every bodies electric hot water systems during earth hour as they have already piad for the power and electricity can not be stored it must be used
I did my bit, turned on the stereo, tv and all the lights. yay! global warming.
Hey someone has to do it.
I’m gonna be sitting in my room, with all the non-fluro lights on in the house, all my tvs turned on, my sound system up on full volume, my washing machine and dryer doing the laundry, both my computers running with CRT screens and with both my SUVs sitting outside with the ignition on. Then i’m gonna get me and my white to hoon up and down my street with our SUVs for that hour. Then we are going to go home and turn everything off once earth hour has finished and sleep.
ROW ROW, FIGHT DAH POWER!!!
i boost my elec use to max for 3 hours
That’s a nice video… it’s so well made and gets the point across.
I can’t believe it flopped in Perth, our family supported it but overall only 2% turned off their lights and energy.
I’m so glad an Australian idea has gone worldwide, an idea such as this too.
I just wish that we could do this more often, but I know if we did it would lose interest quickly.
On Sat, I spent earth hour watching a movie with my l lights turned off. There was Hoodwinked which started at 7.30 and finished about 9.10 and after that I started watching What Women Want
never heard about it til it was over. whatever it is
If it’s so important, why is earth hour only once a year? How about once a month?
Oh, and anyone who watched TV, your meant to save electricity for an hour, which includes the TV, not just the lights. Computers are included as well.
I recon anyone wanting to save money on power, it’s a great idea to have an hour electricity free once a month.
hi where is the Alexandria inform ashen