So, did you turn your lights out at 8:30 tonight?

[Seth]

Not yet 8:30 here, but I plan on going home and turning on every electrical device in the house in protest of this asinine Luddite nitwit eco-propaganda.

Electricity builds prosperity and reduces poverty worldwide, use more today!

Build more nuke plants today! Dam more rivers! Dig more coal. Drill more natural gas. Build more powerplants. Get this economy humming. THAT will have a chance of creating technologies that will solve air pollution and so-called "global warming" concerns.

Shutting off the lights and going to live in wattle-and-daub huts and grubbing in the ground with a stick for roots to eat isn't going to fix anything. Only technology can save us and make our lives better, and technology requires energy.

Tell the eco-fascists to shove their propaganda programs up their asses.

[FBM]

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Apres moi, le deluge. (AKA, Fuck 'em, I got mine.)

[Coito ergo sum]

In our home, we use what I consider to be minimal electricity. Lights are always off in rooms we are not using.

Other than that, we use electricity for hot water, cooking and cooling the house.

Shutting off the one or two bulbs that were on at 8:30pm on Saturday would be pointless for us. Sit in the dark? We may have been doing that at around 11pm when we were winding down and watching some t.v. with the lights down.

Seth is right that electricity is a tremendous boon for mankind. He is wrong that it would therefore be beneficial for each individual to "use more of it." I think he's just amplifying his big "fuck you" to the liberal eco-jerks who think it's important to do publicity stunts to advance their agenda (which has little to do with actually achieving ecological benefits).

We don't waste energy as a matter of habit and common sense. My electric bill is lower if I use less electricity.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I wonder if a certain person is okay with the fact that his electricity bill helps sustain a grid that serves more than just his own needs?

[Coito ergo sum]

I wonder if a certain person is okay with the fact that his electricity bill helps sustain a grid that serves more than just his own needs?

The trouble with judging Seth on this one, is that most folks seem to assign the descriptor "reasonable" to their own usage and suggest that anything other than that level is excessive.

It's like when people drive 60 miles a day in a small car and point judgmentally at an SUV driver who drives 5 miles to work and back. The former often says that what they do is reasonable, and the latter is not.

With respect to electricity, it's the same. I mean, many people turning their lights out and thinking they are doing something about "raising awareness" have a garage full of electric lawn appliances like hedge trimmers, leaf blowers, edgers and weed wackers which they use every week instead of using non-powered alternatives. Some folks even have electric lawnmowers, instead of pushing the non-powered bladed kind. Most folks have central airconditioning now, and any suggestion that they turn it off is generally considered unreasonable, but yet up into the mid 1980s most people did not have air conditioning.

We should all not waste electricity, but sometimes people who are the environmentalist side of things can be a bit sanctimonious about it, and often hypocritically so.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I wonder if a certain person is okay with the fact that his electricity bill helps sustain a grid that serves more than just his own needs?

The trouble with judging Seth on this one, is that most folks seem to assign the descriptor "reasonable" to their own usage and suggest that anything other than that level is excessive.

That had nothing to do with what I said.

[FBM]

...We should all not waste electricity, but sometimes people who are the environmentalist side of things can be a bit sanctimonious about it, and often hypocritically so.

Indeed. Self-righteous indignation is ugly no matter what the issue being defended. A lot of the greeners who put up such a good PC show for their peers don't do anything more than occasionally separate out their recyclables. I grew up hunting and fishing and hate to see forests being razed for the sake of a highway that cuts 15 minutes off someone's commute. I might want to go hunting again someday.

[Warren Dew]

I mean, many people turning their lights out and thinking they are doing something about "raising awareness" have a garage full of electric lawn appliances like hedge trimmers, leaf blowers, edgers and weed wackers which they use every week instead of using non-powered alternatives.

So? How are space aliens checking out our solar system supposed to see the weed whackers? I'm sure they can barely make out the standing segment of darkness created for one day on earth by the "earth hour".

[Coito ergo sum]

I mean, many people turning their lights out and thinking they are doing something about "raising awareness" have a garage full of electric lawn appliances like hedge trimmers, leaf blowers, edgers and weed wackers which they use every week instead of using non-powered alternatives.

So? How are space aliens checking out our solar system supposed to see the weed whackers? I'm sure they can barely make out the standing segment of darkness created for one day on earth by the "earth hour".

LOL - I get your point.

[Seth]

I wonder if a certain person is okay with the fact that his electricity bill helps sustain a grid that serves more than just his own needs?

As long as it serves MY needs, I'm fine with it. I pay my share of the costs of providing energy to me, which is perfectly reasonable.

But then again I'm not compelled to use it, I can always fire up my generator or put in solar panels if I want.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Fuck the infrastructure!