Some lights off, but many in dark about Earth Hour
THOUGH there was no official patronage, some establishments and homes in Qatar switched off their lights between 8pm and 9pm yesterday to support Earth Hour, a global campaign to highlight the need for action on global warming.
Earth Hour 2007 was confined to Sydney, but this year it was a global event with 24 cities switching off lights at 8pm. A total of 282,489 people and 19,903 businesses had signed on to support the campaign.
Earth Hour was the highlight of a major campaign to encourage businesses, communities and individuals to take the simple steps needed to cut their emissions. It was about simple changes that would collectively make a difference – from businesses turning off their lights when their offices were empty, to households turning off appliances rather than leaving them on standby.
Awareness about Earth Hour in Doha apparently was limited. Several hotels and clubs contacted by Gulf Times were unaware of the campaign.
However, there were some enthusiastic supporters. Regency Group, for instance, sent out nearly 3,000 letters to the tenants of its properties and 1,500 to its own staff “encouraging them to take part in the campaign”, said Sharath Rai, HR manager.
Its main office, on the fifth floor of the headquarters building, led the way by switching off the lights.
Another active participant was Movenpick Towers and Suites. “In our ongoing actions for environment, we will definitely participate in this initiative”, said general manager Philippe Bonnot.
The hotel has defined the environment as one of its top priorities for the year.
Among the families who took part in the campaign yesterday were the Crammers from Sri Lanka, who live in a Doha suburb. They switched off all lights in their home.
“This reminds of our home (at Kotte in Colombo) where power shedding was common”, Lenny Crammer said as the family gathered around candle lights.
“We also plan to have a candle light dinner tonight,” Naomi Crammer enthused.
Son Spencer, who attends Aspire Academy, said he knew of the campaign a month ago as a member of Facebook, where it was hotly discussed.
According to him, the campaign is very effective. He said in Sydney, switching off lights for an hour was the equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road in terms of emissions.
“One can imagine what would be the total effect if everyone on earth switched off lights for an hour”, the teenager said
source::Gulf-Times
I got it. But the windows up business doesn’t apply while driving in busy cities (according to the site). And normally on the highway, windows are up anyway because of the wind speed and noise through the windows if they're rolled down.
Thanks for the references. I appreciate it.
Salaam
Thanks a lot for your quick response. But using the air-con is a drag on small cars too. I feel them straining sometimes on shifting gears (automatic carts). If this is an extra load on the car, that means car depreciation is faster, how does that help the environment?
Guess I'm a little confused.
HH - opening the windows increases the drag of the car as air flows into the car and creates resistance to the forward movement. This means that the car has to use more petrol to overcome the additional resistance.
Not sure how opening the windows and turning on the A/C compare in terms of additional fuel consumption though. Sure there have been studies on it though.
I like your post very much, but what do you mean by that last point about the car window? isn't better than turning the car air condition on?
Please let me know.Thanks.
Salaam
who cares? Theres nothing I can do about global warming so I'll just carry on stamping down the carbon footprint, the world will end when world war 3 starts and that won't be long....so just carry on enjoying the global warming
I’ve been taught to care about the environment every minute of my life when I can. This is my family’s daily practice, not an invention though:
1- Switch all lights before leaving the house, ot leave the night lamp on.
2- If not used, unplug or switch off all sockets i.e microwave, air-conditions, ironing, heaters, boiler…etc.
3- Have any dripping tap fixed immediately.
4- Use less plastic bags when shopping. We collect most of the items in less numbers of bags.
5- Car engine off, once stopped by for any quickest errand.
6- Use the back of work documents for jotting notes.
7- We try to assort our trash to a certain extent, though this is inapplicable in my country yet.
We still have bad habits though, but workign on them.
I believe it will make people think more, do you need lights on in every room when you are just watching TV. If offices and businesses were to have a policy of switching off all the lights when people go home, or even having motion sensitive lights they can make a huge difference.
Yes low energy bulbs contain mercury but in many countries they are recycled, especially from offices.
Have you considered how inefficient your car is driving around with the windows down? it makes a big difference to drag
I do agree however that it is sustainable steps that will make a difference, not one off gestures
Aunt Polly,
There's no doubt that doing these "environmentally harmful things" like cutting down trees contributes to global warning, and I believe that we should be looking at ways to minimise our impact.
So all these people who tell you to save the rain forest, stop driving gas-guzzling cars, recycle everything, find alternative sources of energy, etc, etc, so and on and so forth, have good intentions and should be listened to and their advice taken and acted upon. However, the facts and figures they use to back up their campaigns often needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.
They need to strike a balance between sensationalising what's happening in order to shock us into taking action, but not going to over the top so as to annoy people to the extent that they don't bother doing anything good.
Tallg I think perhaps i have spent too much time in the sun and reading emails.... Whoops, then we got it wrong.
I have to agree - I dont think we are going to reverse any effects global warming is having. It's a natural part of living on this planet. Doing small things like recycling is just good housekeeping if you ask me. I'm afraid I can't save the polar bears by turning out my lights (especially if I read the letter incorrectly)
Well said, tallg.
I read somewhere that global warming has a lot more of causes than human activities, sometimes I get confused, our environmentalists tell us that when we cut tress , we can cause global warming, but some others tell us that even if we didn't do all these "environmentally harmful things, " there would still be changes like melting of the polar ice cap etc.
Wonder what to believe ?
Aunt Polly
kelly - the letter to Regency tenants said Saturday. Think you've spent to long in the sun my dear!
We switched our lights off, but left the TV on, and the dishwasher and washing machine running. Does that still count?!
It's clear to anyone who scratches just a little under the surface of the science that there's far more to the causes of global warming than human activity. These things happen every now and then in the long, long history of the earth, way before there were cars, factories, aerosol cans etc etc. Obviously human activity is having an affect, but I don't believe it's as major as many would try and tell you it is. However, there's no harm in us all doing our bit to reduce the human impact.
I really believe that it's more about the gesture. If you turned off your lights it shows that you care. I am not convinced it's supposed to stop an ice cap from melting but it does send a message. Is shows people that you care about your environment
Maybe a better idea would be to host fewer moto-gp or powerboat races or whatnots...
I agree wholeheartedly with the view of Abu american that there is really nothing much achieved by switching off lights for 1 hour and later turning up the ACs of houses or cars, which causes much more environmental damage.
what one needs is concerted and constant practice of being aware of consuming less power than one absolutely needs.
I will try to practice the idea suggested by Abu A that he does not use the A/C unless the temperature goes above 38.
Wish others would suggest more enviornmentally friendly ideas that everyone or atleast the QLers could follow.
Wish the government would restrict the number of new cars sold each day in Qatar- like if the car is absolutely necessary for that person or his/her own family, should it be sold him/her. Qatar is a desert country and has very few trees , how is all the emission from the multitude of vehicles cleaned up by the environment ?
Ajnas, i will surely try to put off the lights in my house for 1 hour today.
Thanks for bringing up an environmentally friendly post .
Aunt Polly
well said abu
This could be my mistake, but I think the letter to the Regency tennants stated that 'Earth Hour' was Sunday?
I'll re-read it but I seem to remember it stating tonight as the switch off. Will re-read....