pelf-ism is contagious

Earth Hour 2007 was a Sydney event. Earth Hour 2008 is a global movement.

On 31 March 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour. This massive collective effort reduced Sydney’s energy consumption by 10.2% for one hour, which is the equivalent effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for one hour.

With Sydney icons like the Harbour Bridge and Opera House turning their lights off, and unique events such as weddings by candlelight, the world took notice. Inspired by the collective effort of millions of Sydneysiders, many major global cities are joining Earth Hour in 2008, turning a symbolic event into a global movement.

- Source: Earth Hour

Created to take a stand against the greatest threat our planet has ever faced, Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming.

This simple act has captured the hearts and minds of people all over the world. As a result, at 8pm on the 29 March, 2008 millions of people in some of the world’s major capital cities, including Copenhagen, Toronto, Chicago, Melbourne, Brisbane, Tel Aviv and Manila will unite and switch off for Earth Hour.

Beyond turning off your lights for one hour at 8pm on 29 March 2008, there are lots of things you can do to make Earth Hour 2008 an even greater success. Here are just a few to get you started.

• Sign up. Not only will you really feel part of it, but you’ll also receive lots of useful tips and tools.
• Tell a friend. Better still, tell all your friends, and your family, and your workmates. Just email them with a link to this website.
• Create your own Earth Hour (PDF) – learn how to organize Earth Hour in your town or local community.
• Advertise. If you’ve registered as a business, don’t be afraid to advertise your support for Earth Hour. It’s great for business and the environment!
• Support. If you’d like to take a more significant role in Earth Hour 2008, contact WWF to find out about support opportunities.

Watch this promo video (3 mins) for more information:

This article was posted in PlanetThoughts.

A San Francisco man has saved over a year of trash because he ran an experiment in consumption. For one year, 35-year old professional caterer Ari Derfel kept every tissue, receipt, food wrapper and plastic bottle inside bins located in his kitchen and living room apartment. Ari even organized the trash by type, so it could be “seen, felt and understood more clearly.”

What started out as dinner with three friends ended up with him collecting his trash in his kitchen closet. His original intention to get two 96-gallon bins from the local waste management company did not get through because “it was illegal to keep trash in bins and not have it removed regularly.”

So what has he learned from his project? In his own words:

1. The vast vast vast majority of trash comes from food packaging.
2. When I ask people to put prepared food in my own containers it disrupts their flow and makes them think.
3. Saving trash leads to increased consciousness of what I consume.
4. Recycling sucks.
5. It doesn’t take much to make a big difference.
6. Trash sucks.
7. Changing is fun, much more fun than it is stressful.
8. Cleaning out food packaging takes time and is necessary to get rid of odors and to ensure bugs and rodents are not attracted to it.

Ari is planning to start a second year to see if he could make less trash then he did the first year. He also hopes to attract some other people to do it with him, “perhaps make it a national competition for fun to see who can make the least amount of trash in a year”. On top of that, he also plans to film the second year and to make a fun, interesting, funny, informative documentary about it. So if you want to help out, now is the time.

And here’s a poll: How much do you reduce, reuse and recycle?
(polling closes on Jan 25th)

A week ago I highlighted a news article which reported that a certain premiere university in Malaysia adopted a “go green” concept and decided to do away with harmful polystyrene food containers. At the end of the article, I threw a poll in which I asked whether polystyrene food containers should be banned in cafeterias/canteens.

The results of the poll indicated that 95% of my readers agreed that polystyrene should be banned in cafeterias/canteens, while 5% didn’t care about it. While I could go about bashing speculating why a handful of my readers didn’t care about the use of polystyrene food containers in cafeterias or canteens, I won’t. Why? Because it is a personal choice, and because everybody is entitled to their own opinions

Here’s a short video clip (20 seconds) that demonstrates the effects of (hot) oil on polystyrene food containers. If the effects of polystyrene on the environment doesn’t catch your fancy, I hope you will be reminded of this video clip the next time you pack lunch/dinner in one of these containers. You don’t eat only your food, you eat some of the polystyrene as well