h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Back online too. Before switching off, and again now, I have watched the videos of lights going out across the world. I found it very moving, and a signal to the powers that be, of what people power could achieve if we all worked together.

Thanks for taking part. There are those who think we are a bunch of loonies, including my other half, but so many millions of people and thinking the same way it has to be worth the effort. An hour thinking about how much we take for granted can't be bad can it

Have a good weekend,

Websailor

I shut down more than usual when I went to bed last night to go with english time but left the pumps going,

WS All the writing on You tube for me is in Japanese so even if it can change to another language the instructions are in Japanese so I don't know where to click to change it,

I did manage to see and hear the film .
Just in case cause I just know your interested Japan 1 - Bahrain 0

hi all
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with my guest going home this morning and the clocks going on an hour, i was in bed for 11pm, thats about 3 hours earlier than i would normaly do, i dont usually go to bed till at least 1-30am to 2am, like to watch a late horror film lol jim

Hi folks! I held 'Earth Hour' yesterday evening along with my folks. I wonder how big the response was, world-wide?

Willem,

Massive, even more than last year. If you can access YouTube and put Earth Hour in there are lots of videos. Seeing huge building shutting off their lights was impressive. It is a message the politicians will be well aware of, that's for sure.

Websailor

2,800 towns and cities, 85 countries

In NZ electricity demand dropped by 3.4%

That should tell the govts. and utilities something, as well as cutting our bills.

Websailor

I am not really into all this green stuff but since Sainsbury's made free plastic bags on request only I have been using jute and bags for life and there has been a reduction in the number of bags blowing around in wind around here and generally which is good. To be honest though the fact that the free jute bag was so strong and just right for my heavy tins of diet coke is the main reason I use the new type of bags. The Green lot win and I win, no probs!
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However I live in outer London and heard about this switching off lights malarky on news and wasn't bothered either way. However as soon as I heard one of the arranger bods for protesters say they would be watching big buildings and if they didn't switch off their lights the buiding would get done over I was fuming! How dare they tell people what they can and can't do, what will it be next, gangs of them patroling estates for houses for lights on and doing them over too?
On the subject of houses, the university protest arranging bloke who rightly got suspended for saying or implying that not just banker effigies could be strung up, is giving out lectures about bankers, no friends of mine, but lives in a £1,000,000 house!
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I realise WS it isn't you smashing up buildings but it does get peoples backs up when threats are made, as the leader of the society of architects said, if you do over bankers they end up getting sympathy as victims, which isn't exactly what is wanted right now!

hi all
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they keep saying we are running out of gas all the time, but ive been watching the series,ice truckers, taking dereks and things on the artic to look for gas, and just before the last episope they found a massive gas find, they said can last for at least 50 years.
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as electric can be produced from water, then why dont they do away with powerstations run on newclear, and go for the water up and down, to run the turbibes, we get enough in the year, rain that is. jim

opps should be turbines, new k/board this time a glitch by me lol

SS, you got the wrong organisation. No-one involved with the Earth Hour had anything like that in mind. The protest you mentioned was the one aimed at the Summit meeting in London in the coming week, which has targeted bankers specifically. If one of them said that, it was designed to cause trouble for a peaceful protest.

No-one is telling anyone to switch off their lights, it was, is, and always will be a voluntary and peaceful event. WWF never suggests, encourages or would be involved in a protest of that kind. That is rubbish!

This is purely a signal to governments that something must be done to curb climate change. It has nothing to do with bankers, the current credit crunch or the G20 summit, but more to do with the climate summit in December in Copenhagen.

It is typical that wreckers would try to rubbish our efforts with one silly comment. if you can find that comment on any of the news bulletins I would be most interested to hear it.

It is not a question of 'green stuff' - climate change affects us all, and those living on low lying land will suffer most. Never mind the scientists it is people who are seeing the effects of climate change on a daily basis that we should listen to. We are already seeing changing behaviour in wildlife that may mean the extinction of many species, from changing climate, pollution and human interference.

Websailor

Jim,

That gas may be available enough for fifty years, that's if the ice roads remain sufficiently frozen during winter, so that the equipment can reach it. They are already admitting that the ice is melting sooner than normal.

It is a complex subject and I prefer to listen to those that know, and as always you have to look at who is paying for research and providing support.

Websailor

As is always the case with demonstrations and marches there is always some idiot, or group who will discredit it. The reports I have seen said there was only one arrest, and the demonstration went off peacefully. It is clear that climate change has been added in to the equation but it had nothing to do with the Earth Hour protest. That comment is no representative of any decent organisation.

Websailor

I don't who it was WS that was saying it, it was someone on the news, no idea which group/person, they just said that if any big business still had their lights on on the switch off day/hour they would be done over. I am sure it wasn't WWF but it puts Londoners backs up if people threaten like that. The way to go is for there to be an advantage to those doing the switching off. In most cases, to be honest, the advantage has to be finantial gain.

There's plenty of fossil fuel, but it will eventually run out. At the rate we're going, we've already used more than half of it, as far as I know. Cutting down on waste is always a good thing. The single biggest problem that we have now is that burning fossil fuels increases the CO2 in the atmosphere which raises the temperature, causing the arctic ice to melt and flooding something like 90% of all the major cities in the world.

You can't make electricity from water, Jimcracker. That's a dangerous piece of misinformation which is being spread by someone or other to try and discredit the power companies.

I have this image of WS swinging through an office block window SAS style on a rope, grabbing a 100w light bulb and replacing it with a low energy one!

SS, threats of that kind put everyone's backs up, not just Londoners! It does no good to a serious protest but as I said there is always someone ready to make trouble, and bring us in to disrepute. Oh, and the media do like to be contentious given the chance!

Gnomon, thanks for your input. I am used to having my views rubbished, not least by my other half, so it is good that someone such as yourself speaks out.

Websailor

SS, my 'swinging' days are over but I have been on the odd protest march in the past

Websailor

I do have some low energy bulbs in use, some were free after all, not really to save the planet, more to save the money, natch!

I don't really use one in lounge as like the brightness and instantness of a hallogen bulb, which is supposed to be energy saving anyway.
Again it is the way to go to get non beleivers/ non interested ones on board as it saves them money. Which is why the clever energy saving companies now have "Save money and the planet" in adverts.

Agreed. I am all for saving money

Websailor