http://earthhour.wwf.sg
A backdated entry on Earth Hour>>
Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change. Only a year later and Earth Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries participating. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome's Colosseum and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square, all stood in darkness, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour.
In March 2009, hundreds of millions of people took part in the third Earth Hour. Over 4000 cities in 88 countries officially switched off to pledge their support for the planet, making Earth Hour 2009 the world's largest global climate change initiative.
Earth Hour 2010 takes place on Saturday 27 March at 8.30pm (local time) and is a global call to action to every individual, every business and every community throughout the world. It is a call to stand up, to take responsibility, to get involved and lead the way towards a sustainable future. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Europe to Asia to the Americas will stand in darkness. People across the world from all walks of life will turn off their lights and join together in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all have in common - our planet
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There was this online contest where contestants submit their most creative ideas on how we can reduce our impact on the environment.
http://earthhour.wwf.sg/contest_listing.php
Some submitted entries are pretty interesting and some are just repeating itself...
I have contributed a 'creative' entry and also asked Duh Vinci(one of my writers) to give his point of view.
(80 words limitation in the contest)
Garuto:
''This idea will blow off everyone's mind. Generate energy power from human activities. Mini dynamos built in doors, shoes, car wheels, windows...etc They already exist but not at great scale. Just take shoes for example, if every step you(billions of you) make can generate one watt of electricity. How many steps do you take a day?''
This idea of coverting kinectic energy to electricity has a very big impact in commercial value.
Imagine, 2 top sports shoe brands in the world. If one of the brand succeeded to implement dynamos in all their shoes.(The technical part is quite simple: when the dynamo has gathered enough stored energy it can be transfered to a charging point in office or home to release the energy. Or be used right away charging handphones or laptops on the go.)
Cutting down perhaps 25% of electricity bills every month.
Which brand of shoes will you prefer to buy?
Duh Vinci:
Garuto's idea of using kinectic energy by human activities is very feasible. But not polictically executable because of oil revenues involving countries and oil magnates . If a new energy supply
comes into the world market, it must fatten their pockets and not lessen.
The introduction of solar energy is the biggest example. Solar panels are actually easy to produce nowadays but in order to 'cover up' loss of profits. The installation must be quoted at a'reasonable price'.
Just to add on - my own 'feasible' idea to anyone who really care about the Earth survival.
DV: There are many other sources of ways to generate electricity other than burning fossil fuels.
Nowadays, we have solar, wind, hydro, nuclear energy. Tapping energy from a never ending souce like fluactuating sea waves, one very good example which I like is 'A wave "snake" floating in the sea off the coast of Portugal has passed its first test as a new commercial energy innovation for clean power.'
http://www.dailyplanetmedia.com/more_stories.php?id=3598&mode=3
Something Singapore can consider since it is surrounded by water. One energy that no one ever dare to think of is Sound energy. If all the noise pollution from road traffic, construction sites, neighbours shouting and mahjong playing can be converted into electricity. We do not have to worry about high electricity bills anymore haha.
