I dag gik den danske version af earth hours hjemmeside online:

Siden er et projekt der er lavet herinde på arbejdet, og syntes faktisk det er blevet super fedt!

Se sitet på www.wwf.dk/earthhour og husk at slukke lyset den 16. december

Cop 15 stands for 15th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It is scheduled to be held on Dec 07 – Dec 18 2009 at Copenhagen in Denmark. Representatives and negotiators from more than 190 countries will negotiate and try to “Seal the Deal” for a common protocol regarding reduction in emission of greenhouse gases. As United States has declined to abide by the Kyoto Protocol earlier, citing that the proposed reduction will have devastating implications on US economy. A great tug of war has been going on between the developing world lead by countries like India and china and developed western nations.
There is a great deal of hope, this time leaders and government of participating countries will realize the urgency of situation. Let’s hope that they will reach a concrete and feasible agreement on tackling the challenge of climate change on a collective basis, which is acceptable to all.
You can also Sign the Petition to tell your leaders and make sure that they lead on climate change.

The success of Earth Hour was followed by successful Earth Day on 22nd of April 2009.But a question still remains to be addressed; do we need a specific day or a week to show our concern towards environment? Is it so that we take up these events to feel relieved of our responsibilities?

In India we are having General Elections. These elections will very much determine the fate of nation in the time to come. Even though there is a huge cry world over regarding various environmental issues, no political parties here bother to take up environmental issues as election issues. Or are our environmental concerns different from the others. Sunita Narain in her editorial Elections 2009: Where is the green party in Down to Earth describes the existence of Green Parties in politics and political parties with green issues world over. India being developing, has seen massive investment in all sorts of development projects, in each of these project the sustainability of existing state of environment is at stake. Yet in this country, leave addressing no political parties bother to even raise it.

It may only be Autumn but I feel ‘snowed’ under and overwhelmed in regards to work & family commitments at the moment.

Forgive the brief post today but I promise that I have a gold nugget of a link for you!!

Click on the link below to view ‘Earth Hour’ photographs from all around the world.  As a photographer I was impressed and as a concerned human being I was inspired.

Click on the link then scroll down the website page.  Some of the photographs you can actually click to instantly see the difference during Earth Hour.  Be your own judge, but I think Las Vegas wins in regards to the biggest response to Earth Hour.

I hope you like this website page and photographs as much as I do. 

CLICK HERE

New Zealand – through the middle of the South Island

It seems like I’m always a bit behind with blogging. On the other hand, you probably wouldn’t believe me, if I’d start to write about future events. Or would you? If you’re good at- or open to other perspectives you may find out which book I’m reading in the current album new zealand V.
Anyway, first after relaxing a few days in the small town Picton, I went to do the Queen Charlotte track. 71 km of best weather and awesome views, but also walking again with a heavy backpack. Afterwards I went to Nelson and further to Greymouth where I took the Transalp train via Arthurs Pass to Christchurch. The train ride was quit nice but a bit overrated and hyped. In Christchurch I decided to rent a car for just a day to head back to Castle Hill, an area with a lot of rocks – boulders famous within the rock climbing community. After a great climbing day and night stay at a campsite nearby, I drove back, returned the car and was off north, to Kaikoura. If I ever got more time I have to go there again – nice people, awesome climbing – sweet as!
In Kaikoura I saw, again, no whales, so I just had a relaxing day reading and basically doing nothing. The next morning brought another bus ride and the ferry from Picton back to the North Island. In Wellington I took part at the Earth hour what everybody should have done.

Pictures: Queen Charlotte Track and Castle Hill.
That’s about all that happened. Shockingly, on the 29th of March, April seemed just a glimpse ahead..

..and I thought about writing of coming back to Europe at the end of this month – but come on, nobody would have believed this April fool hoax anyway.

Last weekend (March 28, 2009) was the world’s largest climate event – Earth Hour. Earth Hour is a global event where people turn off their lights and electrical appliances for an hour. Why? To cast a symbolic vote for action against climate change. Earth Hour is an initiative of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), whose aim is to conserve the world’s threatened regions and their animals.

I was in Canada last weekend where Canadians enthusiastically embraced Earth Hour. A strong majority of Canadians (80%) are concerned about climate change and planned to participate in Earth Hour. Why such a high participation rate? Canada’s Arctic is warming faster than any place on Earth, threatening the survival of polar bears. Often the more apparent the problem, the stronger the action.

What can you do?

• Have an ‘Earth Hour’ every week or month. Gather your family and friends and share an hour by beeswax candles (regular candles are derived from petroleum), without modern electrical distractions. Play a board game, tell stories, and enjoy simply being together. Often kids’ favorite memories are of power outages. So why wait for a power outage?
• Take this idea one step bigger and organize an Earth Hour in your city or town. 
• Write letters to politicians and urge them to take action to fight climate change. The Earth Hour folks have an online form you can use: Vote for the Earth Today.
• Take energy-saving measures in your home. Every little bit helps. There are numerous energy saving tips on the web.

 More ideas? Leave a comment.

I am glad that Communication Bleu Blanc Rouge and the SAT decided to highlight the 2009 Earth Hour on March 29, 2009 via Ideas in the Dark  conceptual gathering party with bands.  Not because we changed the world, but as part of a broader worldwide awareness outreach. The organizers  gave a speech about the whole concept of Ideas in the dark.

I was pretty impressed by the photo shoot in the dark “Disposable Systems” produced by Varial Studios and many other artists. Really interesting finishing.

Two bands

I shot a few Earth hour Montreal short video clips.  Playing, was the band Orange Orange, you can hear another of their  best song  here (Orange Orange), as well as the band Natural Parks a mix of electro hip hop and other flavors.

A Post-its wall to express your green wishes

Attendees were invited to submit their thoughts on post-its and wishes about the Earth.  I submitted “My eyes are green”, an Erika Badu short song.

It was an interesting night.  Who could think that being in the dark for an hour could help us reach out our deepest fibers and awaken it a bit.

Look at the SAT decor with fluo light bulbs.

This past Saturday at 8:30pm local time I participated in Earth Hour, along with millions of other people.

I kept my laptop on, but turned off all my lights, the tv and the rest of the entertainment system. I sat in the dark, with just the faint glow from the street lights and my laptop monitor, and the cats frolicked as usual. I’m sure the low light was no impediment to them, even little one-eyed Cajun.

I didn’t think to light candles or provide myself with a non-electric source of light because I truly didn’t anticipate how dark it was going to be. The days are getting longer, but 8:30 here still means full night. I very carefully navigated the house when necessary, but mostly stayed on the couch. Having all the lights out really makes you appreciate having lights – I don’t think I even realize how many lights I usually have on.

Looking down the block from my living room window, it appeared that the two neighbours across the street from me were participating (or maybe they were just out. Does that count? Kudos to them for not leaving their lights on while out anyway.) The other houses I could see were not participating.

I heard a couple of people argue that there was no point in participating, as a single person can’t make a difference, but I think Earth Hour really shows that we can each make a difference. Real change happens as a result of individuals making a choice to do something different, and any community, any movement is the result of a collective of individuals.

What did you do for Earth Hour?

I woke up this morning asking my self a couple questions, it was really weird that I woke wondering these things so I had to jump on the computer and open up notepad and jot them down and I told my self, hey that would be a good blog posting. So here we go, why are we solving problems by creating problems? Obama is bailing out all these banks, companys. Okay so that solves a problem, but it creates a problem because the money that is being used is just adding to our debt which creates a new problem, which really does not solve the problem.

This past Saturday from 8:30pm till 9:30pm was earth hour, that is where you shut off your lights and other powered equipment to conserve energy, okay what did that solve? It is going to take more then hour, now that brings me up to these new electric cars that they want you to buy to go ‘green’ you buy this nifty electric car, now at night when you have it parked in your garage you need to plug it in so it can charge, problem solved, now you can get in your nifty little green car and drive to work. Well you can get to work, but that is not conserving energy, your using energy/electricty whatever you want to call it to charge your car.

Here local where I live, about 1/2 mile away is a big casino, they got the okay to build a SECOND casino right next door, completely different casino, not related to the one that is there now. WHY? It is going to use more electricty, if anyone knows that casinos use ALOT of electricty to run all the machines.

I enjoyed my first Earthhour, despite spending it alone (kids abed and husband supporting at a soccer game, under floodlights, tsk tsk).  I settled down in the comfy armchair, with a glass of red wine, and some crochet. It turns out that I can crochet perfectly fine with the light of just two candles.

candlepowered crochet

Which prompted me to think of the word candlepower. It’s the unit of light given by one candle but surely that is dependent on size of candle, reflective surface behind it, etc? I think I am more of a fan of the word horsepower. I’ve always loved the idea that our modern cars are compared using the pulling power of a noble horse. The venerable French car, the Citroen 2CV (or duex cheveaux [sic] which means two horses) was one I longed for, before I learned to drive, purely because it put the horsepower in the name so elegantly.

And thinking of animals and trying to be true to my promise of writing contest details in this blog (drawn from my books) – here’s one on the theme of animals…

Until next time, Happy Writing, by any power,

Grace

Angels in Disguise Contest (www.angelanimals.net/awards.html)

July 15, 2009 (annual), USA

Nonfiction – true story / personal essay about an animal

Entry Fee: free

Prize: 250 US dollars (1st), 25 (2-6th place)

Η ώρα της γης πέρασε. Στην Ελλάδα η συμμετοχή πέρασε κατά πολύ το αναμενόμενο (ίσως επειδή έχουμε πολλά μικρά χωριά, ίσως γιατί ακόμα διαθέτουμε φιλότιμο). Πρώτη η Ελλάδα σε συμμετοχές. Για μια ώρα 8000000 λαμπτήρες έσβησαν, δηλαδή μειώσαμε την κατανάλωσή μας κατά 500MW, δηλαδή κατά 500τόνους CO2, δηλαδή σαν να αποσύραμε από τους δρόμους 36000 αυτοκίνητα για μια ώρα.

Οι παραπάνω ενέργεια εκτός από το περιβαλλοντικό όφελος (το οποίο προφανώς είναι ασήμαντο στο σύνολο της χρονιάς και θα πρέπει να κάνουμε πολλές ώρες της Γης.. καθημερινά για να εξισορροπήσουμε στο ελάχιστο, τις δραστηριότητές μας με το περιβάλλον) αποσκοπούσε και αλλού:
Καταρχήν, δόθηκε η αφορμή να κινητοποιήσουμε ανθρώπους με ευαισθησίες, να δείξουν τον καλό τους εαυτό και στο περιβάλλον. Δήμαρχοι, που δεν γνώριζαν για την Ώρα της Γης, μέσα από αυτό τον πανικό συμμετοχών έδειξαν ενδιαφέρον. Και μέσα από αυτούς, δόθηκε στους δημότες η ευκαιρία να… προβληματιστούν.
Για μένα αυτό είναι μεγάλη επιτυχία της ώρας της γης. Πως ήταν τόσο μαζική η κινητοποίηση (αντί για 1000 πόλεις, συμμετείχαν τελικά 3922 σε 88 χώρες), που ο οποιοσδήποτε με οικολογικές ανησυχίες δεν ντράπηκε να εκφραστεί, και για μια ώρα, δεν ήταν αυτός ο τρελός του χωριού που θέλει να σώσει τον κόσμο.. αλλά ήταν ένας από τους πολλούς τρελούς που συμμετείχαν στην λύση.
Φυσικά και το μεγαλύτερο κέρδος, σε πολιτικό επίπεδο, είναι πως η ώρα της γης μας βοήθησε να μετρηθούμε. Να μετρήσουμε τους ανθρώπους που είναι έτοιμοι να αλλάξουν σελίδα στον τρόπο ζωής τους εάν χρειαστεί. Και είναι πλέον, μια μεγάλη υπολογίσιμη δύναμη, που κάθε κυβέρνηση πρέπει να ικανοποιήσει τα πιστεύω της, εάν θέλει… να τους έχει με το μέρος της και όχι σαν εχθρούς της.
Η επόμενη μεγάλη μάχη είναι σε 9 μήνες. Στην Κοπεγχάγη, όπου θα διαπραγματευτούν τα Ενωμένα Έθνη το μοναδικό διεθνές νομοθετικό πλαίσιο για τα αέρια του θερμοκηπίου στο οποίο οφείλονται οι περισσότερες κλιματικές αλλαγές.

Samedi le 28 mars dernier à 20h30 avait lieu le Earth Hour 2009, cet événement où les gens étaient invités à fermer leurs lumières durant 1 heure. Voici quelques photos de Montréal lors de l’événement.

Mont Royal

Des idées dans le noir

C’est certain que tout ça est plus symbolique qu’autre chose, mais au moins on constate qu’il y a une véritable volonté de changement à travers le monde, comme le témoigne ce groupe Flickr. Au Québec, nous sommes chanceux de puiser notre énergie de l’hydroélectricité, qui est une ressource renouvelable, mais il y a encore beaucoup d’endroits dans le monde où les sources d’énergie sont polluantes.

Ce qu’il faut savoir, c’est qu’il existe des alternatives très intéressantes et efficaces comme la géothermie qui peut fonctionner à peu près partout sur Terre! Il y a aussi en ce moment, plus que jamais, beaucoup de développement sur des sources d’énergie qui sont, disons, plus expérimentales et peu communes, comme le témoigne ce site.

Ce n’est donc pas les solutions qui manquent, mais la volonté et encore et toujours… l’argent.

Espérons seulement que nos politiciens en veston-cravate à qui nous avons donné le pouvoir et qui dorment sur la switch se réveilleront bientôt…

Earth hour: sixty minutes (ninety here) without electric lights, TV, computer (dishwasher? oops!). Futile gesture?

Summer time gobbles another hour. Is it summer already?