Earth Hour 2008

I'm not sure how I feel about this.
Sure, at first it seems like a great idea! I mean anything to conserve energy is a good thing right?
But for some reason, this also saddens me... one hour, out of an entire year, and we're supposed to feel good about this?
I also don't like how the video uses scare tactics about global warming. You can't just suggest "global warming" then show a bunch of tornadoes ripping buildings apart. It's a false image, tornadoes have been around since we've had weather!
So amidst a message that overall I agree with (helping the planet), I'm reluctantly posting this youtube video to encourage you to join in. This Saturday, from 8pm - 9pm - turn off all your lights and as many electronic devices as you can.
One more troll like comment...
The video shows everyone gathering around candles. Candles pollute too! In fact they are worse than a light bulb. I hope people don't jump in their SUV's to run to the store and buy a bunch of candles and matches to do this. I have a feeling it would be defeating the purpose. That said, If you already have a candle(s) in your house, I'm sure lighting it for an hour would be better for the planet then a house full of lights.
What encourages me the most about this "movement" is that corporations are doing this also. Now that I see as a benefit. These high rise office buildings who keep their lights on all night long is something people should notice and do something about.
Ok, I'm stepping down off my soapbox now.

Tech Tags: earth+hour energy environment globa+warming

new batteries from Toshiba

Been a while since I posted anything "green" so here's a cool discovery...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22240865/

And it's a short post to make up for my "book" post yesterday.

Blog action day

Well, I've waited til the last moment to decide if I wanted to do this or not. I admire the idea behind it, but I'm torn as to their motivations. I also am feeling frustrated at the moment about the environment. I wonder if something as corny as posting this post on my blog will make any bit of difference in the environment.

But, in the off chance that it will in some small way make some sort of difference, I'll post here anyway.

CFL's...
I've been having a lot of difficulty trying to figure out what to do with a CFL that recently burned out at my office. I'm not supposed to just trash it because it has tiny amounts of mercury in it. But I've had to jump through several hoops to figure out how to properly dispose of it. I've narrowed it down to two choices. I can get in my car, and drive about 40 minutes (one way) to drop it off at my county hazardous waste site. I've also been told (via an eco-newsletter that my mom just signed up for) that IKEA will take old CFLs. I still need to look into this, do ALL Ikea's take the bulbs back? Do they have to be Ikea brand CFLs? Either way, I wish it were a much easier process to get rid of this thing.

My only other environment advice for this is simply two links:
http://treehugger.com/ - I really like this site and it's designed so nice too.
and this one...
http://www.terrapass.com/ - But I have to be honest here too... I have not signed up for it myself. Again, I don't trust the company, and am not sure on how I feel about just spending money to alleviate the "guilt" of driving a car.

I wish I could be more optimistic about this but it just caught me in a bad mood I guess. :)

Toyota Hybrid

Good news! I just stopped over to "the environmental blog" tonight and saw this post about Toyota. I know my sister was the first to hip me to this fact, but it is nice to have a timeline now to look forward to. Toyota is hoping to have ALL of their vehicles converted to hybrid by 2020. That still seems like a thousand years in the future to me, but I guess 13 years will go by in the blink of an eye. I wonder too if they took the Jumping Jesus" phenomena into consideration - because then it will only be a matter of a few years.
Thanks to the environmental blog for posting this.

Tech Tags: toyota hybrid toyota+hybrid environmental+blog