29 Mar 2008 1804H

Earth Hour is nothing, NOTHING

A pause here in the normal flow for this important message.

After all, it is in keeping with Papanek’s imperative that design, being a human activity, serve humanity by helping us survive as a species. You know. Kind of important.

Darren Yates, a contributing editor to Australian PC User magazine, says we should think about all the things you can do to save the planet during our work day and at home:

1) Black-background screens on websites reducing energy consumption of screens? A myth. What works: reduce your screen brightness and contrast to the minimum you need to get your work done. Most screens are cranked up to full brightness and full contrast, which causes the meter dial to spin so fast I could slice deli meat on it. Turn it down. Potential savings: up to 3.3 million megawatt-hours.

2) Set your power management settings on Windows. In Vista, you could use the PowerSaver setting. For the rest of us who run Windows XP, forget about screensavers: they don’t save energy, what they save is your screen from phosphor burn-in, a danger of previous generations no longer present. You can power down your monitor when it’s not in use or follow the EPA EnergyStar instructions.

3) Turn off your computer, monitors, and your printers before you leave for the night. Don’t standby them: turn them off. Potential savings: 2 million megawatt hours.

4) Turn off your DSL modem before turning in for the night. Savings: up to 5 million megawatt-hours.

There ya go. 10 million megawatt-hours, easy. You could even start buying EnergyStar 4.0 or later certified computers, but I think most people would have a hard enough time just trying to get these first four things done.

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2 responses to "Earth Hour is nothing, NOTHING"

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13 Apr 2008 1337H

Patrick writes:

Chicago really didn’t participate too well. I live in the downtown area and I turned off all my lights, my ISP actually shut off their services for the hour, and I just noticed the same amount of lights. It’s sad that people won’t even participate in a possibility.

13 Apr 2008 1545H

Gino writes:

Everyone wants an immediate and palpable response to an action, which also is a symptom of our sick culture. All movements begin with small steps. Everyone has to start somewhere. Next year we can try several weeks in advance with local efforts and build up to another hour or maybe even two offline.

And now it's your turn.

Fire your weapon, soldier. Just be careful of friendly fire. NAME & EMAIL required.

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