India Too Dim To Dim For Earth Hour
28 March 2008 by FabbiGabby
India has decide to stay illuminated when the world will switch off for Earth Hour between 8 and 9 pm on March 29. As of today no Indian city has officially joined the campaign to black out to show that India too is in the crusade to reduce global warming.
So far, 35 nations, 370 cities, towns and councils worldwide have pledged to turn out their lights for one hour. This includes cities like Christchurch, Bangkok, Seoul, Dubai, Antarctica’s Casey Base, Manila, Copenhagen, Rome, Dublin, Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco and Mexico City.
2008 is the second year in succession when a clutch of cities in the world would be taking the initiative of using no electricity for an hour. Earth Hour was first started in Sydney when on March 31, 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney business establishments turned off their lights for an hour. The carbon emissions saved owing to the brief shut down amounted to the same as taking 48,000 cars off the road for an entire year.
We urge you to participate in Earth Hour, and also spread the awareness. It is a small step but will go a long way in preserving this planet. If we choose to follow the path of indifference we would be paving the way to extinction of human race.
helloji
FabbiGabby
jaded_mind
Do people turn off their refrigerators too? Seems like that would be a significant saving.
It seems mumbai is joining…
Lot of indian city dont have 24×7 power even today.
In my city its daily loadshading of 4 hrs in winter and goes to 6hrs in summer by the electricity board. It,s better to turn off the lights in big cites since they never suffer the load shading. If they do consume less power small cities like my city can have power and the load shading time will be reduced.
It (Earth hour) is a stupid capitalistic way of covering up for guilt. Since electricity cannot be stored, what happens to all the energy generated over the one hour?
Power is being generated and not being utilized. Okay, you might argue that power generation can be reduced over the one hour. However, since there can be no estimate about the number of people participating in this initiative, there cannot be an estimate of the reduction. However, since you do not have an engineering background, I can understand your inability to process this information.
I guess I’ve wasted enough time on your site already.
IIT Bombayite - this is about spreading awareness more than anything else. People in India are no strangers to power shortage. That is not the case in developed countries. Electricity is taken for granted. Lights stay on all night in office buildings. It still makes me a little sick in the stomach.
The simplest way of making the estimate is to go to the source - the power company. Here in Vancouver the power company reported a saving of 125MWH. With your engineering background that data should be easy to process.
@ Prateek
How does the power company define “saving”? Let me explain my previous post a little more clearly:
Electricity cannot be stored, hence there can be no “saving”. If electricity generation is lowered, there can be saving of coal / nuclear fuel / hydro energy. Now, you are correct in pointing out that the power company is the organization to refer to in the case of making an estimate. Electricity generation, transmission & distribution is a tricky process. The supply-demand equation has to be monitored closely for ensuring voltage fluctuation free operation.
Now, if all the people living in a certain area tell their power company that they are not going to use power for an hour, the power company can probably make a rough estimate. My question is, did this really happen? On what basis did the power company report savings to the tune of 125 MWH? What is the veracity of this information?
My angst is against the person who has written this article, with a title to provoke Indians. Its easy for someone sitting in the US to comment, without knowing the ground reality in India. Also, I wanted to point out the fact [which many environmental scientists are already aware of] that Earth Hour cannot make a difference unless power generation is stopped/lowered.
Hope that this post clarifies my stand.
To All: Cannot stop from laughing. Thanks IIT Bombay-ite. His comments about Electricity and Engineering are hilarious. Here is a gem: “electricity cannot be stored.” Really? Which century is he from? He needs an estimate of people to estimate the power saving. It is like saying the power company needs the number of bulbs I have at my home before they find out how much electrical power I have used. Did he not get any basic training in rudimentary physics. Ops, my mistake, he is from IIT. Forgiven. Reminds me the advice of an old farmer: the great thing about morons is that they are eager to tell the world how stupid they are. You do not have to do a thing.
Apologies all round. I realized too late that I am speaking to an audience that does not include people with training in “rudimentary” physics. You see, any person who has had training in school about physics will tell you that there is an elementary difference between Alternating Current [AC] and Direct Current [DC]
While DC can be stored, AC cannot. And since the power company generates AC, [drum rolls here] they cannot store electricity that they have produced.
Get your fundamentals right before commenting and making a fool of yourself.
I suggest you go through the following links:
1. http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060922065812AAJEUZG
2. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/edison/sfeature/acdc_insidebattery.html
3. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/edison/sfeature/acdc.html
It will give me immense satisfaction for my contribution towards decreasing the amount of stupidity floating on the internet. I find it rather unfortunate that the so-called “educated” class knows nothing about such fundamental information.
Oh, and I forgot to add, being an IIT Bombay-ite helps in understanding physics.
I had assumed that you would not be able to understand the dynamics of electricity because of your educational background. Now I am beginning to wonder whether you have an educational background in the first place! Ha ha ha!
Like a wise man once said:
“It is better to keep your mouth shut and let others think that you are a fool. Rather than to open it and remove all doubt.”
Think about this the next time you make a post relating to technology, you technologically challenged, correction, make that educationally challenged person.
Hey, a forum becomes really unpleasant when its members start squabbling instead of discussing things. We are talking of saving energy here,infact we are wasting our precious energy in fighting.
And IIT Mumbaite, I couldnt understand when u said “On what basis did the power company report savings to the tune of 125 MWH?” The Power company can get the power consumption data for the entire month and divide it by (30*24).So one gets the 125MWH data.Theres no ambiguity there.
Got it energy cannot be stored,but obviously u can save it by not generating it in the first place.So Earth Hour is actually a Good Idea.
Be at peace,Guys.
@ Kas
Point taken. It was not my intention to start a debate on this forum. I was provoked.
Earth hour is “celebrated” for one hour in a day every year. Now, to estimate required reduction in energy generation for one hour is simply not possible. Earth hour will be a success if it practiced one hour on every single day of the year. Power companies will be able to make an estimate of reduction in power generation only if they have monthly data, which you have correctly pointed out.
(quote)but obviously u can save it by not generating it in the first place.(end quote)
You will notice that I have made the same point: “… Earth Hour cannot make a difference unless power generation is stopped/lowered.”
Since stopping power generation is no solution, the other one becomes the answer.
Cheers!
Dear All,
IIT Bombay-ite is right in saying Earth Hour is not a means to save energy.
I also agree with V that most of the villages in India still barely get 8 hours of energy or even less.
However I do believe that Earth Hour is a campaign to build awareness and spread the word to make attempts to save energy and save the planet.
Yes merely keeping electricity shut for 1 hour in 365 days a year is not going to solve the problem that the planet is facing. Metaphorically it is something very similar to the idea of keeping ‘2 minutes’ silence in a public forum to pay tribute to the the person passed away- by keeping silence for two minutes we cannot bring the person back to life, but yes what we can try and do is to reflect on that persons life and imbibe the best.
The sole objective behind campaigns like Earth Hour is to make people more aware, not to take natural resources for granted, and use them conservatively. And all this awareness is not being spread to be practiced for just one hour in whole year and expecting some miraculous results, but as a part of our everyday lives and our outlook towards it.
I understand how Prateek feels when he sees lights in an office building on all night without a single human being using that energy.
India is a country of a billion in the world population of around 6.6 billion. We CAN definitely make a difference.
Thank you all, for stopping by and taking the time to comment.