One hour isn't enough
Next Saturday lights will be going off all over the world for Earth Hour
Six thousand, nine hundred and fourteen schools, 1,539 cities, 17,031 business' and 80 countries will be flicking off their lights on Saturday, March 28 from 8:30 to 9:30pm.
Earth hour started in Sydney, Australia in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as Empire State Building (New York City), Sears Tower (Chicago), Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco), Bank of America Plaza (Atlanta), Sydney Opera House (Sydney, Australia), Wat Arun Buddhist Temple (Bangkok, Thailand), the Colosseum (Rome, Italy), Royal Castle (Stockholm, Sweden), London's City Hall (England), Space Needle (Seattle) and the CN Tower (Toronto, Canada) took part in Earth Hour last year.
According to WWF Thailand, Bangkok decreased electricity usage by 73.34 megawatts, which, over one hour, is equivalent to 41.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide, Toronto saved 900 megawatt-hours of electricity. 8.7 per cent was saved if measured against a typical March Saturday night; the best result was from Christchurch, New Zealand. The city reported a drop of 13 per cent in electricity demand.
To bring attention to the issue of global warming Live Earth, which happened on July 7, 2007, staged concerts in New York, London, Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg and Hamburg - as well as special broadcast events in Antarctica, Kyoto and Washington, DC - and featured more than 150 of the world's best music acts, like The Police, Madonna, and Kayne West. But some groups decided not to take part in it because traveling around the world to perform defeats the purpose of the Live Earth concert.
Sir Richard Branson (you may know him as the Virgin Mogul), is a global leader in championing environmental awareness and founding partner of Flick Off. The Virgin Earth Challenge is the largest science and technology prize ever offered and will award $25 million to any scientist that can create a viable plan to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere without any kind of residual damage to the environment.
In 2006, Sir Richard announced the creation of Virgin Fuels. Designed to take immediate action against global warming, he pledged to direct $3 billion in the next ten years towards the development of clean-burning fuels and renewable energy. Virgin Fuels' first venture is the creation of an investment fund that will pump $400 million over the next three years into bio-fuel initiatives. Construction has already begun on several plants in the western United States that create bio-ethanol fuels from grain and corn.
Now in 2009 a goal of one billion people has been set. Earth hour was created by the World Wildlife fund to also bring awareness to the issue of global warming, by bringing people by the thousands to do one thing-Turn off their lights for one hour.
Our generation is the generation that is the most earth friendly. I remember in elementary school we had Earth Week, all the kids would wear earth colours (like blue, green, brown) and we would go out and around the school and pick up garbage. We take alternative routes of transportation instead of driving a gas guzzling SUV, we recycle, some compost and now we are part of the global movement where for one night of the year we flick off our lights for one hour.
But I believe that one hour is not enough, there are alternative ways to save energy. During the day, open up some windows-natural light is the most energetic thing to get you going on those slow mornings. Buy a re-usable water bottle and Brita filter. Get a compost, not only will it cut down on the bulk of your garbage, your house won't smell like rotting food and you can use the material from the compost as soil for your garden. Buy re-useable grocery bags, most grocery stores are now charging 10cents per bag, spend a dollar and get more space and unlimited use out of them. Buy environmentally friendly cleaning products, plant a tree, and if you have the cash invest in a hybrid car.
Fast Earth facts:
- Total national greenhouse gases emissions in Canada in 2005: 279,842,143 tonnes CO2 equivalent (total all gases).
- Of the total carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere each year, deforestation adds 23-30 per cent.
- Next to electricity generation, road vehicles are the largest and fastest growing source of carbon dioxide emissions, producing 30 per cent of emissions worldwide.
- For Canada, vehicle emissions represented about 34 per cent of greenhouse gases in 2003.
- Canadians are the second worst emitters of carbon dioxide per capita, next to Americans. Canadians have a huge appetite for energy.
- Canadians use more energy than all of the 760 million inhabitants of Africa.
- Canada is one of the greatest consumers of energy per capita, burning the equivalent of roughly 7,700 litres of oil per person each year.
- 77 per cent of Canadians are convinced global warming is real. Almost half of us believe we will see the effects in our lifetime.
Six thousand, nine hundred and fourteen schools, 1,539 cities, 17,031 business' and 80 countries will be flicking off their lights on Saturday, March 28 from 8:30 to 9:30pm.
Earth hour started in Sydney, Australia in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as Empire State Building (New York City), Sears Tower (Chicago), Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco), Bank of America Plaza (Atlanta), Sydney Opera House (Sydney, Australia), Wat Arun Buddhist Temple (Bangkok, Thailand), the Colosseum (Rome, Italy), Royal Castle (Stockholm, Sweden), London's City Hall (England), Space Needle (Seattle) and the CN Tower (Toronto, Canada) took part in Earth Hour last year.
According to WWF Thailand, Bangkok decreased electricity usage by 73.34 megawatts, which, over one hour, is equivalent to 41.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide, Toronto saved 900 megawatt-hours of electricity. 8.7 per cent was saved if measured against a typical March Saturday night; the best result was from Christchurch, New Zealand. The city reported a drop of 13 per cent in electricity demand.
To bring attention to the issue of global warming Live Earth, which happened on July 7, 2007, staged concerts in New York, London, Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg and Hamburg - as well as special broadcast events in Antarctica, Kyoto and Washington, DC - and featured more than 150 of the world's best music acts, like The Police, Madonna, and Kayne West. But some groups decided not to take part in it because traveling around the world to perform defeats the purpose of the Live Earth concert.
Sir Richard Branson (you may know him as the Virgin Mogul), is a global leader in championing environmental awareness and founding partner of Flick Off. The Virgin Earth Challenge is the largest science and technology prize ever offered and will award $25 million to any scientist that can create a viable plan to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere without any kind of residual damage to the environment.
In 2006, Sir Richard announced the creation of Virgin Fuels. Designed to take immediate action against global warming, he pledged to direct $3 billion in the next ten years towards the development of clean-burning fuels and renewable energy. Virgin Fuels' first venture is the creation of an investment fund that will pump $400 million over the next three years into bio-fuel initiatives. Construction has already begun on several plants in the western United States that create bio-ethanol fuels from grain and corn.
Now in 2009 a goal of one billion people has been set. Earth hour was created by the World Wildlife fund to also bring awareness to the issue of global warming, by bringing people by the thousands to do one thing-Turn off their lights for one hour.
Our generation is the generation that is the most earth friendly. I remember in elementary school we had Earth Week, all the kids would wear earth colours (like blue, green, brown) and we would go out and around the school and pick up garbage. We take alternative routes of transportation instead of driving a gas guzzling SUV, we recycle, some compost and now we are part of the global movement where for one night of the year we flick off our lights for one hour.
But I believe that one hour is not enough, there are alternative ways to save energy. During the day, open up some windows-natural light is the most energetic thing to get you going on those slow mornings. Buy a re-usable water bottle and Brita filter. Get a compost, not only will it cut down on the bulk of your garbage, your house won't smell like rotting food and you can use the material from the compost as soil for your garden. Buy re-useable grocery bags, most grocery stores are now charging 10cents per bag, spend a dollar and get more space and unlimited use out of them. Buy environmentally friendly cleaning products, plant a tree, and if you have the cash invest in a hybrid car.
Fast Earth facts:
- Total national greenhouse gases emissions in Canada in 2005: 279,842,143 tonnes CO2 equivalent (total all gases).
- Of the total carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere each year, deforestation adds 23-30 per cent.
- Next to electricity generation, road vehicles are the largest and fastest growing source of carbon dioxide emissions, producing 30 per cent of emissions worldwide.
- For Canada, vehicle emissions represented about 34 per cent of greenhouse gases in 2003.
- Canadians are the second worst emitters of carbon dioxide per capita, next to Americans. Canadians have a huge appetite for energy.
- Canadians use more energy than all of the 760 million inhabitants of Africa.
- Canada is one of the greatest consumers of energy per capita, burning the equivalent of roughly 7,700 litres of oil per person each year.
- 77 per cent of Canadians are convinced global warming is real. Almost half of us believe we will see the effects in our lifetime.
