Monday, March 31, 2008
News Earth Hour -- Reduced energy a bit, helped people get drunk
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 7:20 PM
Earth Hour, Saturday night's voluntary power-down that covered cities around the world for 60 minutes of darkness, did reduce electricity usage. But only by a bit.
Georgia Power says:
ATLANTA - Georgia Power customers in Atlanta decreased their electricity usage by nearly 4 percent during Earth Hour on Saturday night, March 29. The average reduction during the hour was 7.05 megawatt-hours, or enough electricity to serve 1,750 homes.The downtown Atlanta grid saw the 4 percent reduction at the midpoint of the 8-9 p.m. ET hour, when the majority of interior and external building lights were off.
The results were based on usage data from previous similar time frames.
That's far less than the 10 percent reduction Sydney boasted during last year's event. And this year, there's an angry Aussie chap awesomely named "Andrew Bolt" who says the event was unsuccessful.
But hey, even if we didn't have 60 minutes of energy-free bliss, the occasion gave many celebratory drinkers and people looking for a reason to party to turn off the lights and play beer pong by candlelight. And that, my friends, is what counts.
Comments (3)
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I don't fault the mayor for pushing this symbolic act. At least it's pushing people in the right direction. But a measly 4 percent indicates that "awareness" pales beside serious sustained changes in energy policy.
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