General Discussions

I'm pretty sure it's intended to make people be more aware of their energy consumption in the long term, I wasn't aware anyone was suggesting switching off for an hour has any actual effects.

If that is what they intended then I doubt it will work, it probably is their intention but it won't convince people to do it in the long run. People will turn off lights and electric devices when not using them (like me) if they really care about the planet, other people who don't care as much but still take part in earth day will probably just turn off electronics for an hour and then think "Well I've done my part, I feel good, now I won't even think about doing it again until next earth day." 1 hour isn't going to change many peoples minds.

I personally wish the lights would actually turn off for one hour a year or even longer. Not because of any so called environmental effects but because most people including myself have never actually seen the sky without any light pollution.

I was in New York last year when it was Earth Hour and we happened to be up at the top of the Empire State Building. They actually turned off most of their lights at the top of the building and the city looked really cool. All of a sudden there were a lot less lights on when you looked around the tower down at the city.

Same thing every year:

2008 Link
2009 Link

Great, low power usage for an hour followed by a huge power surge as everyone turns the lights on at the same time. Great work eco-hippies.

Well Mr Dhampy no need to worry about me, I'll be using as much power as usual. Tonight at 8.30 when earth hour starts I'll probably be sitting on my bed playing some good ol PS3 version of Final Fantasy XIII on my 51 inch plasma TV, which going by the power rating on the back of the television it drains quite a bit more energy then a lot of other TV's. My power bill is normally half to quarter of every else's bills are naturally without trying so its not like I'm saving enough already.

For people that are doing it, all power too them. It's just not for me.

its already started i think here and I still have my power on..I never participate in it cause I can't go an hour without something electronic.