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Are you willing to go without electricity for an hour?

By | February 25, 2010, 1:51 PM PST

The World Wild Fund is reporting that 19 state and 48 U.S. cities have pledged to turn off their lights for one hour at 8:30 p.m. local time on March 27, 2010. (We’re talking the governments of these cities; they aren’t going to FORCE an outage or anything.)

This will be the third annual Earth Hour event, which apparently inspired about 80 million people in the United States alone to participate last year. Here’s some more information in the form of the organization’s official video. It is especially cool to see lights going dim in Las Vegas.

So far, here are the states that have committed officially: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. (That’s three times the number that participated last year.)

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Heather Clancy

About Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy

Contributing Editor, Business

Heather Clancy has written for United Press International, ZDNet, Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, the International Herald Tribune and the New York Times. She holds a degree from McGill University. She is based in New Jersey.

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Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy
Writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to help itself and the world get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to said effort. I'm also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.

My daily writing is focused on looking for topics for my blogs, GreenTech Pastures and Business Brains. I also write often about emerging technology trends such as mobile computing, unified communications and cloud computing. Occasionally, I will pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where a speaking engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, that fact will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.

My corporate writing work usually consists of crafting research white papers about some aspect of technology. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and the topics that I'm covering in my blog.

She writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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+1 Vote
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RE: Are you willing to go without electricity for an hour?
I'd prefer that the WWF all become Amish or better yet drink poison to
completely lower their harm to the planet, since it bothers them so
much.

Meanwhile, I'll be using all the modern conveniences that the 21st
Century has.
Posted by jtdavies
26th Feb 2010
+1 Vote
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RE: Are you willing to go without electricity for an hour?
Absolutely. Meditating in unision with millions of people all around the world--it feels quite awesome actually.
Posted by Mythos7
26th Feb 2010
+1 Vote
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RE: Are you willing to go without electricity for an hour?
You can have alot of fun in the dark by candlelight!
Posted by rkmurdock64
26th Feb 2010
+1 Vote
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RE: Are you willing to go without electricity for an hour?
NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by techsmith@...
26th Feb 2010
+1 Vote
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Isn't it better to have STEADY electrity usage?
Isn't it better to have STEADY electricity usage? That was there doesn't have to be any complex re-routing / adjusting done by power providers. It is the spikes and valleys that are a problem.
Posted by bobp@...
26th Feb 2010
+1 Vote
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What do you mean for an hour?
Thanks to Mother Nature (a real cast-iron *****) power has been out at home for the past 15 hours already.
Posted by Dr_Zinj
26th Feb 2010
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RE: Are you willing to go without electricity for an hour?
To JTDAVIES - only if they take Al Gore and his kind with them!! grin
Dr_Zinj - don't feel bad. A couple of years ago, an ice storm knocked out my power for 3 days and my 79-yr-old mother for a WEEK! The worst part was she had to stay with me (she's a retired teacher!).
Posted by JTF243@...
26th Feb 2010
+1 Vote
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RE: Are you willing to go without electricity for an hour?
I am pretty close already due to being on a fixed income. I usually keep one-maybe two lamps on and the thermostat at 66-68 and dress warmly. I am used to it and am comfortable.

I propose to those that are serious about this go one step further for this and another reason-fight back against soaring energy costs they can't validate. My electric company in VA applied for a 17% rate increase and started billing when they applied for it last year. They have been slapped on the wrist and ordered to repay. Since not specified how, they are going to :deduct: 2% going forward rather than give immediate refunds (for me over $200). Gee Mr. Obama, that extra $20 would have come in handy. Oh-the hearing for the increase is in JUNE.

Keep on keepin' on with your cause! I support you whole heartedly and hope Virginia will sign on as well. How do we make that happen??
Posted by surfyngirl
27th Feb 2010
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RE: Are you willing to go without electricity for an hour?
Having lost power for over a week thanks to hurricane charlie back in 2004 I think I could live for an hour.
Posted by mpdt@...
27th Feb 2010
+1 Vote
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RE: Are you willing to go without electricity for an hour?
I just went without power for 37 hours due to a storm here in the
Northeast. I'm covered for life on this now.
Posted by tcadle@...
27th Feb 2010
+1 Vote
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It's -32 Celcius outside
Ask me again in the summertime, if I cut the electricity now all
waterpipes will crack.
Posted by Dukhalion
3rd Mar 2010
+1 Vote
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RE: Are you willing to go without electricity for an hour?
Turning off your lights for an hour will do NOTHING for anybody. The power has to be generated to meet demand either way. The power companies aren't going to stop generating electricity for that hour. .

So, in reality, by turning off your lights for an hour, you're really just contributing to waste. The power plants will be generating electricity for absolutely nothing. All you're going to do is spike the usage trend, and waste all of the fuel that's being burned to generate electricity for you.

You might as well protest world hunger, by purchasing a meal at Taco Bell, and then throwing it in the dumpster.
Posted by wrenchmonkey
4th Mar 2010
+1 Vote
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Sure, I'm willing...
...but the servers I've got in my closet aren't.

Also, Bravos for jtdavies and wrenchmonkey

My view: energy shortages are being *caused* by neo-Luddites that are standing in the way of progress in every corner of the globe. As presently constituted, the environmentalist movement is helping nobody in this regard. Turning off the lights here doesn't advance the Third-World any more than my cleaning my plate as a child solved global hunger.

We need to leverage every source of power at our disposal. *Every* source. And that includes the cheapest, most 'Green' source around: Nuclear. And lots of it.
Posted by gkp00co
16th Mar 2010
+1 Vote
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RE: Are you willing to go without electricity for an hour?
I won't have to. Now that the government has shown that they're not afraid to stand up for The People, I know that they'll take care of us, and we'll never want for anything ever again.
Posted by bobobob_042@...
22nd Mar 2010
+1 Vote
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RE: Are you willing to go without electricity for an hour?
No This is silly... as long as there is money, this problem will
exist... There will be shortages, caused by those who control the
need. So this little hour, is purely nonsense.
Posted by rbert16000
30th Mar 2010
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