The big switch off

[ljcox]

See http://www.slf.org.au/calendar/event/2819

 

[gregmcc]

What....and switch all my computers off!! Never!

 

[audioguru]

In summer we are requested not to water lawns on Wednesdays. We are not requested to stop ALL water use like drinking it and washing with it. Lots of water is saved so it isn't rationed.

I think shutting off EVERYTHING electrical including battery powered things and not using the car for 24 hours is too severe.

 

[ljcox]

In summer we are requested not to water lawns on Wednesdays. We are not requested to stop ALL water use like drinking it and washing with it. Lots of water is saved so it isn't rationed.

I think shutting off EVERYTHING electrical including battery powered things and not using the car for 24 hours is too severe.

Yes, I don't know why they are doing it. To make a point, I suppose. I won't bother. But I thought it may be of interest.

You're lucky that your only restriction on watering lawns is on Wednesdays.

We are on stage 3 water restrictions which means:-

1. NO watering of lawns.

2. Gardens can only be watered by hand using a hose with a trigger nozzle
between 6 am & 8 am on Saturdays & Tuesdays only. Or using an automatic drip system between midnight & 2 am on Saturdays & Tuesdays only.

3. Cars can only be washed using a bucket of re-cycled water - no hosing.

It is claimed that global warming has shifted the rain pattern.

Rain that used to fall on southern Australia now mainy falls on the Southern Ocean.

EDIT: I had to revise to above after checking the restrictions.

 

[HiTech]

People have been trying that idea with auto fuel for a long time without anu success. Seems that most folks will fill up prior to a "strike" day or fill up the following day thereby watering down the purpose of the message they are trying to convey!!

 

[ljcox]

I don't know what the situation is in the US, but in Australia, a large proportion of the population claim to be concerned about global warming and want to know what to do about it.

 

[Sceadwian]

Turning off your lights or not driving your car for 24 hours isn't going to do anything. The awareness it brings to your energy usage might. Only effect concious aware people. God forbid you have to deal with you own family for a few hours.

 

[HiTech]

I don't buy into the huge percentages of human-induced global warming as the chicken little scientists report. There's no doubt that mankind generates its fair share of emissions into the atmosphere and waters but the end effect is pale compared to what nature pulls on us from time to time. You could have every automobile/truck on this planet running all at the same time for 48 hrs. and it still won't add up to what's spewed from a volcanic eruption like Mt. St. Helens or similar. That volcanic eruption altered the earth's atmosphere for an entire year as particles were suspended, creating a myriad of effects from stark sunsets to overcast skies and smog-like air. What needs to greatly decrease is the removal of trees and vegetation across the globe, esp. the rain forests. Those are the planet's 24/7 atmospheric cleaners. It truly urks me when I see a wooded area get stripped clean, developed for a housing project, strip plaza, or industry, only to last several years and then get abandoned. The only thing that roots from the abandonment are weeds. Local governments try to rekindle the blighted areas but often they are unsuccessful.

 

[ljcox]

There have always been volcanos. What is new is the impact of the industrial revolution and the deforestation of the planet as you said.

A programme that I saw on TV recently finally convinced me that global warming is caused by man (there is plenty of other evidence also).

They showed how oil and coal were created originally. Millions of years ago, there was a much higher level of CO2 in the atmosphere (due to volcanos) and the average global temperature was higher than today. This caused the growth of some sort of green plant (I can't recall the name, a type of alge I think) in shallow seas. When these organisms died they sank to the bottom - taking the carbon with them. After a few million years, these dead organisms were converted into oil or coal.

The carbon taken from the atmosphere reduced the green house effect thus reducing the average global temperature.

The industrial revolution and the deforestation of the planet has reversed this process so we are in danger of going back to square one. I'm not an expert, but I assume that if nothing is done, the result will be worse than the "square one" because we have significantly reduced the extensive forest cover the earth had before the industrial revolution and during the original global warming period.