A statement by Viv Forbes, Chairman of the Carbon Sense Coalition.
27 March 2010
The Carbon Sense Coalition today said that Earth Hour should be renamed “Blackout Night” and be held outdoors, for the whole night, in mid-winter, on the shortest and coldest day of the year – 22 June in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that all supporters of alternative energy should spend just one night in the cold and the dark, emitting no carbon dioxide from coal, oil, gas, petrol or diesel for lights, TV, hot coffee, barbecues or cars. This will be good practice for the blackouts and shortages to come if Penny Wong’s rationing of carbon products and carbon energy is attempted.
“Winter nights are usually still and cold, so the candles crew can experience what it was like depending on alternate energy in the recent snowstorms in the Northern Hemisphere when wind turbines froze and solar panels were covered in snow. The back-to-nature brigade can also try living without iron roofs and concrete walls, both of which require coal and emit carbon dioxide during their production.
“To hold a candles-and-champagne party indoors, on the mildest night of the year, for just one hour, shows that the whole thing is green tokenism. Moreover both candles and champagne emit carbon dioxide. Let the true believers try the real thing in one of the extreme seasons so they can appreciate the great benefits we take for granted when using all of our carbon fuels and foods.
“Instead of sneering at human achievements they should salute the people who keep the lights on for the other 364 days of the year.
“Our salute will be to turn on every light on our property, and we urge all supporters to do the same.
“Australia gets almost 90% of its electricity from hydrocarbon fuels – black coal, brown coal, gas and oil. If the German Greens close their coal and nuclear power they can fall back on gas from Russia, nuclear power from France or hydro from Scandinavia when the lights go out.
“Australia has no prudent neighbours to bludge on if we gamble our future electricity needs on sunbeams, sea breezes and ceiling insulation. If we attempt the massive cuts in carbon dioxide emissions demanded by the deep greens we will see Australia headed for the Romanian power rationing experience – during the Ceaucescu regime in Romania, each house was limited to ONE 25 watt bulb for all of their light.
“All over the world we have aging power stations and an orchestrated campaign by a few warm and well-fed agitators to harass, delay and deter construction of new power facilities.
“Such a campaign can only have one result – many ‘Earth Night’ blackouts are assured.
“So we support ‘Blackout Night’ to prepare our population for the dark days ahead.
“Take a look at a place that celebrates ‘Earth Hour’ every night – Stalinist North Korea. Compare it to free South Korea that keeps its people warm, well fed and working (with the help of Australian coal):
PDF version: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/earth-hour-2010.pdf [PDF, 102KB]
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