Turn Off You Home Theaters Tomorrow to Observe Earth Hour

[Davemcc]

Gene, if you really want to massacre your scalp, visit Brazil, 99% of their cars run on alcohol produced from locally grown sugar cane. Sugarcane, which happens to be grown in 200 countries produces about 1400 tons of sugar per year, this boggles my mind. BTW I have a class D Panny receiver, not bad.

Yup, I just watched a documentary about how Brazil continues to raze old growth rain forest to increase it's sugar cane acreage to meet demand for the fuel. Now that's a ecological trade-off, thousands of acres of rain forest to change which fuel you burn???

 

[Halon451]

My family has only one car, we live in a house half the size of many people we know, and I recently ripped all the siding off my home and insulated the entire thing... And yet I'm not a "conservationalist" or even a die-hard believer in global warming.

Sometimes people can do the right things for reasons other than saving the planet I guess. I think if everyone tied "saving money" to these different alternatives, rather than attempting to use other reasonings, more people would have greater motivation to get on board. It's a win-win. If solar energy could power my entire house, I'd have it. It doesn't work at the levels needed to make it practical for me, so for now I'll wait.

That's my whole line of thinking behind nuclear energy. It's cheap. Bring it on. Hybrid cars? Make them get 100 mpg and have them look cool. Make me an affordable electric car that costs 1/10th the price of oil to make it go just as far and have it look like either an SUV or a lotus. I'll buy it. This week.

I hope this wasn't divisive - just trying to find common ground. I believe the right solution can have two different motivating reasons for success.

I agree with you there - I don't necessarily mean to jump all over the environmentalists, for what it's worth, it surely can't hurt anything, so I say if it feels good, then knock yourself out, go for it. I do my small part, as previously mentioned, and what do you know my wife and I also recycle - which nets us no immediate gain, unlike the $$ savings from our CFL's for example, but it's an easy thing to do.

What I don't like is being force fed this global warming propaganda every single time I turn around as if the earth is going to break apart at any second because Neighbor A, B, C, and D all drive SUV's (I am neigbor B by the way); I think everyone just needs to calm the hell down a little bit and go about this rationally and logically. What we need is fact, not fiction.

 

[Joe Schmoe]

I always turn off my HT when it is not in use. I have a switchable power strip for that purpose.

 

[Audioholics]

OMG - check this out...

From here (official government site of Maine):
http://www.maine.gov/dep/rwm/homeowner/cflbreakcleanup.htm

What if I accidentally break a fluorescent lamp in my house?

The lamp contains a small amount of mercury, but you can clean this up yourself if you do the following:

• Do not use a vacuum cleaner to clean up the breakage. This will spread the mercury vapor and dust throughout the area and could potentially contaminate the vacuum.
• Keep people and pets away from the breakage area until the cleanup is complete.
• Ventilate the area by opening windows, and leave the area for 15 minutes before returning to begin the cleanup. Mercury vapor levels will be lower by then.
• For maximum protection and if you have them, wear rubber gloves to protect your hands from the sharp glass.
• Carefully remove the larger pieces and place them in a secure closed container, preferably a glass container with a metal screw top lid and seal like a canning jar.1 A glass jar with a good seal works best to contain any mercury vapors inside.2
• Next, begin collecting the smaller pieces and dust. You can use two stiff pieces of paper such as index cards or playing cards to scoop up pieces.
• Pat the area with the sticky side of duct tape, packing tape or masking tape to pick up fine particles. Wipe the area with a wet wipe or damp paper towel to pick up even finer particles.
• Put all waste and materials into the glass container, including all material used in the cleanup that may have been contaminated with mercury. Label the container as “Universal Waste - broken lamp.”
• Remove the container with the breakage and cleanup materials from your home. This is particularly important if you do not have a glass container.
• Continue ventilating the room for several hours.
• Wash your hands and face.
• Take the glass container with the waste material to a facility that accepts “universal waste” for recycling. To determine where your municipality has made arrangements for recycling of this type of waste, call your municipal office or find your town in this list municipal collection sites (MS Excel format) (pdf format).
• When a break happens on carpeting, homeowners may consider removing throw rugs or the area of carpet where the breakage occurred as a precaution, particularly if the rug is in an area frequented by infants, small children or pregnant women.
• Finally, if the carpet is not removed, open the window to the room during the next several times you vacuum the carpet to provide good ventilation.

The next time you replace a lamp, consider putting a drop cloth on the floor so that any accidental breakage can be easily cleaned up. If consumers remain concerned regarding safety, they may consider not utilizing fluorescent lamps in situations where they could easily be broken. Consumers may also consider avoiding CFL usage in bedrooms or carpeted areas frequented by infants, small children, or pregnant women. Finally, consider not storing too many used/spent lamps before recycling as that may increase your chances of breakage. Don’t forget to properly recycle your used fluorescent bulbs so they don’t break and put mercury into our environment.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

When I was a kid we used old burned out fluorescent bulbs as swords and it was really cool when they would bust and make that loud pop but then again when I was a kid... lead paint didnt kill you, no helmet was required to jump a 4 foot ramp that Dad built, it was fun to shoot bottle rockets at your friends, it was ok to stand up in the backseat without a seatbelt and there was nothing wrong with drinking the water in a pothole during football practice.

From here (official government site of Maine):
http://www.maine.gov/dep/rwm/homeowner/cflbreakcleanup.htm

What if I accidentally break a fluorescent lamp in my house?

The lamp contains a small amount of mercury, but you can clean this up yourself if you do the following:

• Do not use a vacuum cleaner to clean up the breakage. This will spread the mercury vapor and dust throughout the area and could potentially contaminate the vacuum.
• Keep people and pets away from the breakage area until the cleanup is complete.
• Ventilate the area by opening windows, and leave the area for 15 minutes before returning to begin the cleanup. Mercury vapor levels will be lower by then.
• For maximum protection and if you have them, wear rubber gloves to protect your hands from the sharp glass.
• Carefully remove the larger pieces and place them in a secure closed container, preferably a glass container with a metal screw top lid and seal like a canning jar.1 A glass jar with a good seal works best to contain any mercury vapors inside.2
• Next, begin collecting the smaller pieces and dust. You can use two stiff pieces of paper such as index cards or playing cards to scoop up pieces.
• Pat the area with the sticky side of duct tape, packing tape or masking tape to pick up fine particles. Wipe the area with a wet wipe or damp paper towel to pick up even finer particles.
• Put all waste and materials into the glass container, including all material used in the cleanup that may have been contaminated with mercury. Label the container as “Universal Waste - broken lamp.”
• Remove the container with the breakage and cleanup materials from your home. This is particularly important if you do not have a glass container.
• Continue ventilating the room for several hours.
• Wash your hands and face.
• Take the glass container with the waste material to a facility that accepts “universal waste” for recycling. To determine where your municipality has made arrangements for recycling of this type of waste, call your municipal office or find your town in this list municipal collection sites (MS Excel format) (pdf format).
• When a break happens on carpeting, homeowners may consider removing throw rugs or the area of carpet where the breakage occurred as a precaution, particularly if the rug is in an area frequented by infants, small children or pregnant women.
• Finally, if the carpet is not removed, open the window to the room during the next several times you vacuum the carpet to provide good ventilation.

The next time you replace a lamp, consider putting a drop cloth on the floor so that any accidental breakage can be easily cleaned up. If consumers remain concerned regarding safety, they may consider not utilizing fluorescent lamps in situations where they could easily be broken. Consumers may also consider avoiding CFL usage in bedrooms or carpeted areas frequented by infants, small children, or pregnant women. Finally, consider not storing too many used/spent lamps before recycling as that may increase your chances of breakage. Don’t forget to properly recycle your used fluorescent bulbs so they don’t break and put mercury into our environment.

 

[majorloser]

I say as a fellow Audioholic, we should all dump our Class A/B amps and embrace a Class D. Of course once I measure one that I feel is worthy, I will be right behind you

Class "A" all the way! Don't want no power lags in my house.

 

[gene]

What I don't like is being force fed this global warming propaganda every single time I turn around as if the earth is going to break apart at any second because Neighbor A, B, C, and D all drive SUV's (I am neigbor B by the way); I think everyone just needs to calm the hell down a little bit and go about this rationally and logically. What we need is fact, not fiction.

There is virtually nothing we can do to harm the Earth and it will be here long after humanity isn't. Its protecting our own species and other species from extinction is the primary goal of being aware of global warming and trying to be better to the environment.

 

[majorloser]

There is virtually nothing we can do to harm the Earth and it will be here long after humanity isn't. Its protecting our own species and other species from extinction is the primary goal of being aware of global warming and trying to be better to the environment.

But every species is ultimately doomed to extinction. The planet will change and life will either adapt or die off. We are just the first organism on this planet with the capablity to change the environment.

You just need to dive to any deep oceanic thermal vent to see how life has adapted. Water well over +400 C, toxic chemicals and many thousands of feet down below the surface. Yet life flourishes.

 

[Jack Hammer]

You know those energy efficient flourescent bulbs everyone is pushing? Well I bought one package not having read the packagae carefully enough until after I installed a bulb into a fixture. I find out that these dam things contain mercury. Hmmmm, Poison the ground with heavy metal or be energy inefficient. I wonder which is really worse.

They do contain mercury, but there are efforts to limit or decrease the amount. It is not a perfect solution. The general consensus has been that the amount of mercury in a bulb is offset by the energy savings and polution decreased by burning coal. In short they are considered to be the far lessor of two evils.

Jack

 

[stratman]

But every species is ultimately doomed to extinction. The planet will change and life will either adapt or die off. We are just the first organism on this planet with the capablity to change the environment.

You just need to dive to any deep oceanic thermal vent to see how life has adapted. Water well over +400 C, toxic chemicals and many thousands of feet down below the surface. Yet life flourishes.

Ha! Look at me!

 

[Halon451]

But every species is ultimately doomed to extinction. The planet will change and life will either adapt or die off. We are just the first organism on this planet with the capablity to change the environment.

You just need to dive to any deep oceanic thermal vent to see how life has adapted. Water well over +400 C, toxic chemicals and many thousands of feet down below the surface. Yet life flourishes.

Again, I'm a little skeptical about humanity's impact in the grand scheme, when you consider that a single volcanic eruption puts out more pollutants and CO2 than all of mankind's combined contributions. The curse of our own intelligent design is that we are often prone to our own arrogance as a species.

How ironic it would be the day we finally figure out how to eliminate our dependency on oil and all other fossil fuels, we reduce human's CO2 output to zero, we standardize and make efficient the hydrogen car, and are able to offer 100% clean, renewable energy to all of Earth's inhabitants - and an asteroid comes out of nowhere and takes us the way of the dinosaurs.

 

[stratman]

Yup, I just watched a documentary about how Brazil continues to raze old growth rain forest to increase it's sugar cane acreage to meet demand for the fuel. Now that's a ecological trade-off, thousands of acres of rain forest to change which fuel you burn???

That is kind of scary isn't it?, Ironically Cuba, 90+/- miles from the US has cut it's sugar production to about an 1/8 of what it can produce, they're so dumb, if Raul would step up sugar/alcohol production they can be the Saudi Arabia of the Caribbean.

 

[Audioholics]

One site posted its analysis of the energy results of the event:

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/earth_hour_crashes_to_earth/

 

[Halon451]

One site posted its analysis of the energy results of the event:

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/earth_hour_crashes_to_earth/

Outstanding article...

 

[Joe Schmoe]

Those who express concern about Man's effect on the environment focus too much on global warming and miss the real issue. At the current rate of destruction, the rain forests will be gone by 2050. As in completely gone, and they don't grow back (the soil under rainforests tends to be poor, as few nutrients make it that far.) An equatorial desert spanning the globe is likely to have a far more severe effect than any other disaster. (And making it even worse, the coral reefs are also dying.)

 

[Halon451]

When I was a kid we used old burned out fluorescent bulbs as swords and it was really cool when they would bust and make that loud pop but then again when I was a kid... lead paint didnt kill you, no helmet was required to jump a 4 foot ramp that Dad built, it was fun to shoot bottle rockets at your friends, it was ok to stand up in the backseat without a seatbelt and there was nothing wrong with drinking the water in a pothole during football practice.

That brings back some memories Greg. I was thinking about how my friends and I used to do the very same thing with the fluorescent bulbs while I was reading Clint's post, but you beat me to it.

What's a helmet?

 

[MapleSyrup]

Tomorrow marks the second annual Earth Hour event where major cities around the world will be turning off their power for a full hour. For home theater buffs, perhaps now is a good opportunity to buy a power conditioner with battery backup such as an APC AV S15 or S20, so you can enjoy your theater system interruption free while still being green. It would be cool to see how many fellow Audioholics participate in this event so please comment in our forums and let us know if you turned off your home theater systems during this event or switch to an alternative energy source.

Discuss "Turn Off You Home Theaters Tomorrow to Observe Earth Hour" here. Read the article.

How about doubling your watts normally used and listenting twice as long as normal. In fact, while leaving your jamming home theater on at near maximum watts, leave the house, go shopping, sit in the park, go back home and crank the A/C just to protest this crap.

If we shut off all industry and stopped all oil-burning vehicles that would hardly even dent the CO2s in the atmoshpere. Bio fuels (btw, it takes 1 1/2 gallons of gas to produce one gallon of ethanol and ethanol biodegrades in the pipe lines so they need to be shipped out via trucks) were recently recently found to produce more severe green house gases (surprise surprise, a government subsidy making a declared grave situation even worse) than CO2s, we've had record winter tempuratures, water is a green house gas and has around 200 times the warming capability than do CO2s s call for the ban on water why don't you? 22,000 scientists recently said they don't agree with the United Nincompoop's global warming findings, there's a big sphere in space called the Sun and its reached record sun spots, Mars' temperatures have risen, etc. etc. etc.

If people really want the true affect of global warming, the hype that is, take out 60%of your earnings and give it to the goverment.

 

[MapleSyrup]

One correction

I need to correct one thing from my previous post. Here's an excerpt from and interview with Reid A. Bryson, PhD in Meteorology.

Q: Could you rank the things that have the most significant impact and where would you put carbon dioxide on the list?

A: Well let me give you one fact first. In the first 30 feet of the atmosphere, on the average, outward radiation from the Earth, which is what CO2 is supposed to affect, how much [of the reflected energy] is absorbed by water vapor? In the first 30 feet, 80 percent, okay?

Q: Eighty percent of the heat radiated back from the surface is absorbed in the first 30 feet by water vapor…

A: And how much is absorbed by carbon dioxide? Eight hundredths of one percent. One one-thousandth as important as water vapor. You can go outside and spit and have the same effect as doubling carbon dioxide.

So water has 1,ooo times the wamring affect as CO2s. Not 200.

And don't forego reading my absoutely favorite line in the interview. You can't miss it.

http://www.wecnmagazine.com/2007issues/may/may07.html

 

[gene]

If people really want the true affect of global warming, the hype that is, take out 60%of your earnings and give it to the goverment.

I don't want to throw this thread into a debate about the existance of Global Warming. For that, feel free to goto the steam vent.

But you may wish to read this short editorial done by National Geographic with data backed by Nasa that rebukes the sun being the cause. They also did a very informative 3hr special on TV about this discussing artic ice retreat, permafrost melting and releasing methane, etc.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1206_041206_global_warming.html

I don't agree with BIG government either but it seems over the last 8 years thats all we've been getting but let's leave that for another thread too.

There is alot of innovation to be done now to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and personally, I'd love to see Amercia lead the way and show the world just how great we really are. In that process if we clean up our enviroment to ensure we leave our grandchildren a nice planet that we happened to enjoy, its icing on the cake.

 

[stratman]

I must confess my ambition for an alternative fuel car is not ecological, but political. Gene is right, we have to do something to get from under OPEC's thumb, there has to be a conserted effort, I just fear government (both parties) is so corrupted by special interests that it won't do a thing. By now we should have been off oil, at least on the automotive side.

My sister in law just got back from London/Paris yesterday, she told me that in London gas is going for $10.00 a gallon.