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On Saturday, March 29th, 2008 a whole lot of people around the world
turned off their lights (and some their electricity) for one hour from 8
PM to 9PM local time. I participated in this because I thought it seemed
like a cool idea. It was billed as, "Going Dark" for "Earth
Hour" and was started in Australia.
Sitting there with the lights off and in silence I began to think of the
impact of this gesture. I realized that this would cut the oil consumption
on a huge scale with such a small personal sacrifice. I realized that with
a little organization people can make a bigger difference to our massive
energy problems by doing relatively minor things.
Then I started to think about Iraq. It has always been my opinion that
attacking Iraq was a huge mistake, predicated on a lie for the real
purpose of securing oil supplies, and also for some companies to
disproportionately profit from the ravages of war (read: no bid
contracts).
And we're constantly told by our administration, for which I have NO trust
and LESS respect, that the Iraqis are better off today than before the
war. In addition to the fact that the typical safety level of the average
Iraqi citizen is very LOW, that their unemployment levels are
astronomical, these people have only an AVERAGE OF ONE HOUR OF WORKING
ELECTRICITY EACH AND EVERY DAY!!
Am I the only one who finds this outrageous and unacceptable?? I think
not!
So, I have derived that the idea of continuing to go dark, UNPLUGGING
from the grid, a "Green
Hour", EVERY NIGHT,
from 8 PM to 9 PM local time would serve several purposes:
-
It will reduce oil
and fossil fuel consumption. The more people that do it, the more oil will be conserved.
Because they keep telling us that the rising price of oil is in part due
to supply and demand, it would ultimately bring down the price of gas and
heating oil if enough people participate.
-
It will help the environment
and help to slow global warming.
-
It will allow people to sit
and think, or if they have families to have a solid hour of QUALITY TIME together EVERY
DAY, without personal distractions or the distractions of modern
"necessities" such as TV, video games, computers, phones, CELL PHONES,
etc. This is prime time for family to read, sing, play games, talk, or get
the little ones ready for bed with a calm and peaceful atmosphere. Hmmm,
imagine that....
-
It will make a statement that
it is unacceptable that the Iraqi people only have one hour of electricity
turned ON each day.
-
Of course, this will
reduce the electric bill which will return more money to my family to use for
better reasons, in effect, it is good to stimulate the current economy on
an ongoing basis, as opposed to a token and inadequate handout by our
government which will make no real long term difference, and oh yes, by
the way, WILL BE TAXED ON NEXT YEARS RETURN!
So, I am doing it. I am
UNPLUGGING every night
and:
I invite people who care about these things to join me
for GREEN HOUR! You can do this at any level:
daily, weekly, monthly, or just whenever you think about it. It doesn't
have to be rigid. EVERY LITTLE BIT makes a difference....
I have gotten a lot of
excellent inquiries about the bottom line - does this actually save any
appreciable amount of energy?. I have gotten letters stating that the
energy it takes to power back up my AC and refrigerator would negate any
real savings. Well, I'm here to say this is NOT TRUE! In fact, my first
electric bill was $100 less, a 25 - 30% savings, my second was about the
same. This third bill was actually more like a $150 savings, our lowest
EVER for this time of year, we've been in this house for 8 years. How is
this possible with only 30 - 31 hours of off time per month?? Well,
they're peak hours in my house, usually with a lot of lights, TV,
computer, AC, washer dryer. But also, Green Hour actually begins to have
me being more vigilant in general, turning off lights when not in the
room, changing to lower wattage bulbs, and getting a gauge of which things
in my house draw the most electricity.
SO FOLKS, this does work:
it does save energy, it does put money back into the family, and it does
help to bond the family by assuring at least one solid hour per night of
quality face-to-face family time.
It will take
commitment but really not much, some courage and some personal
inconvenience, but I think it is well worth it......
Much Love,
Andrew
P.S. If you want to dialog
about this you can do so on my blog on MySpace, which is HERE:
http://andrewsongs.net
AND THIS
SITE WILL BE RE-DESIGNED to include ideas for things to do at Green Hour,
Green Hour friendly items such as solar lamps and various other cool
gadgets, so STAY TUNED!!
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HOUR HOME
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