EARTH HOUR - worldwide event - Please participate on 3/28/09!!

[GaDawg]

Earth Hour is today!!!

Saturday, March 28, 8:30-9:30pm.

 

[the_eagle69]

I'm in

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
Wow Lisa. I'm glad I read through this thread before I posted.
You and I have very similiar views. Here I was thinking you were a
tree hugger or something.

(I've hugged a few trees, and chickens
in my time

)

I have to say one thing hoping it may promote a better understanding
of how our power grid works. All these people shutting stuff off for
an hour will do nothing to reduce any sort of polution. Power plants
are either on or off. If this makes people feel good because they think
they are helping the environment I fear it will make things worse. Global
powers and interests are flooding the masses with misinformation
about global warming instead of saying "cmon people, let's clean up
our air, water, and land" which is a goal we can all agree on.

On the positive side this may show a few people that they can live
comfortably without using so much electricity. In the long run this
can be a good thing.

PurpleChicken, Conservative Environmentalist.

 

[DuckyBoys]

Should I turn off my heat lamps in the barn too? Seriously, the Electrical Co-op here is going to be forced to use wind and solar, meanwhile our bills are going to skyrocket out of control - I'm sorry but I won't support anything that contributes to the false notion that the earth is "warming" while the politicians mandate "changes" so they can make money with "Tax and Trade".

 

[flopshot]

Quote:
i wish it had stayed that way but when the "solution" is as easy as paying more in the form of cap and trade and purchase of carbon credits the problem is reduced to a purely political issue. i heard yesterday that california is attempting to ban black cars. politicians allways find a way to take a worthy cause and make it political.

 

[lisahaschickens]

DuckyBoys. It is a fact that the earth is warming. No need for quotes. The questionable thing is whether or not humans are contributing. The temp was going to go up about now anyway. The question is - are humans making it go up faster and/or higher? And the asnwer is we don't know.

And therefore, focusing on something like that is a waste of time. I wish that Al Gore would quit showing people pictures of mountaintops without snow on them and then telling them that the world is coming to an end and it's all their fault. The pollution sources that people worry about with things like "global warming" are bad in so many other, tangible ways. And we're doing so many other harmful things to all parts of our planet and ourselves. Contaminants (pullution) in our earth, air, and water are devastating to wildlife and to our food supplies and our own bodies. Clear cutting, overfishing, overgrazing, and overcrowding are all serious issues that are never even touched by governments. Wasteful packaging, massive amounts of preventable garbage, and urban sprawl - all preventable things if people band together and become aware and make personal efforts to make smaller impacts on our own, individual, and global environments.

People waste their time getting outraged by things like hunting (of legal, non-endangered species, for food of course) when most hunters are avid environmentalists who work hard to conserve the natural environments for the species they responsibly hunt. People yell at me for driving a pickup truck when they drive Priuses, but the fact of the matter is that even if every single privately owned motor vehicle of any type were taken off the road, it wouldn't have nearly the impact of shutting down a couple of irresponsibly run paper mills, for example. Politics and propaganda have clouded the issues and they are definitely used to politicians' and lobyists' ends, instead of actually focusing on concrete issues that can truly be addressed and improved. It makes me sad every day.

But, that doesn't mean that I don't think that something like Earth Hour can't be good. Sure, lots of people will think that they spent an hour saving the environment because they used less power, and that will give them a false sense of accomplishment. However, I think that this event has potential to create awareness and a sense of gloabl community. It could make people aware that so many other people out there do care and are willing to make an effort to actually improve things, if given proper direction and instruction. We depend on our political leaders to do that, and it's not going to happen any time soon. But, in the end, people care. And feeling that sense of community, no matter how brief, I think is an important thing.

 

[DuckyBoys]

Quote:
That is blatently untrue. There is no scientific consensus on "global warming".

 

[newchickenfamily]

hehe. I'm glad to know that I read the original post wrong! The bators will stay on!

We will be participating. If nothing else, we will have a quiet evening, not sitting in front of the boob tube. Maybe my DH and I will sit on the front porch and enjoy the beautiful weather and have a nice chat instead.

I'm with you lisahaschickens. I don't know why some people need to spin this into something bigger or something that it's not. Sheesh! Just enjoy the silence!

 

[DuckyBoys]

Quote:
The reason we don't just "join in" is because these little demonstrations propagate the hysteria of some bunk phenomena and contributes to negative changes in personal freedoms based on said hysteria.

Everything about global warming is a political power move, so posting a thread asking people to "join in" and then wanting them to be silent regarding the vailidity of the purpose is naive.

 

[lisahaschickens]

that is misinformation. the truth is that there is no consensus on HUMAN CAUSED global warming. The temperature of the earth has historically fluctuated and we are, in fact, on a slight upswing right now. There is no consensus beyond that - no consensus as to what effect it may have on the earth, if any, and no consensus if humans are making it worse. We have had slight warming and cooling intervals even in the recent past the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s all had warming periods, followed by cooling periods. In the late 1800s we had what is referred to as a "little ice age" where glaciers increased in the northern hemisphere. You may have read stories or seen reference to ice skating on rivers in Holland. This was possible then and has not been since, as we have been warmer and warming a bit since then. These fluctuations are normal and will always continue. It's just that until we understand fully (which is so massively complicated that I don't believe it will be anytime soon) whether or not our activites have any influence over these temp fluctuations, I believe that we should gfocus our energies elsewhere. That belief is my opinion. The warming and cooling trends are not an opinion. They have happened since the earth was originally formed. It has been very hot and tropical over nearly the entire planet. At other times, there have been massive ice ages where much of the planet was covered with solid ice (glaciers) and much of the rest was similar to today's arctic tundra.