Check out the Earth Hour Photos page from the 2008 event!
Earth Hour is an initiative of the World Wildlife Fund. It seeks to deliver a message about the urgent need for action on global warming. It encourages the turning off of lights for 1 hour on the 29 March between 8 and 9pm.
The first Earth Hour was in 2007, in Sydney, were 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour. This effort reduced Sydney's energy consumption by 10.2% for one hour, the equivalent effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for a year.
Since then it has become a global event with the cities of: Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne, Sydney. Atlanta, Chicago, Christchurch, Copenhagen, Phoenix, San Francisco, Suva, Tel Aviv and Toronto participating in this year’s event.
More information can be found at www.earthhour.org.
This year the Council participated in Earth Hour 2008. The following lights were turned off:
All streetlights remained on and park and feature lighting, which are wired into streetlights.
The Council has also wrote to its commercial tenants, such as Hydro Tasmania, Digital Ink and PML, encouraging them to participate in the event.
The Council also encouraged all its employees, regardless of where they live to be part of Earth Hour and turn their lights out for one hour.
Climate change is caused by an increase in the greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. These gases absorb heat leaving the earth and return some of it, making the earth warmer overall.
Before the industrial revolution, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere were consistently between 260 and 280 parts per million (ppm). In recent times human activities have increased the concentration to 380 ppm—that’s an increase of more than a third.
The main greenhouse gases generated by human activity are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.
Research by the world's scientists, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, suggests that:
Australia is very vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including water supply problems, sea level rises, extreme weather events and a reduction in biodiversity in ecologically-rich sites such as the Great Barrier Reef and the Kakadu wetlands.
Globally, 11 of the last 12 years are the warmest since 1850, and 2005 was Australia's warmest year on record, 1.09°C above the average for the period 1961 to 1990.”
Source: http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/gwci/households.html
Modeling of global warming impact on Tasmania indicates that in the near future that our maritime climate will experience warming at a slower rate. Some of the impacts predicted include:
The Council has been committed to action on global warming since 2000. It is a participant in the Cities for Climate Protection Program and has committed to reducing it corporate greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by 2012 against 1996 levels.
To date it has reduced emissions by 65%. This has been achieved by a range of actions including the installation of cogeneration of methane gas from McRobies Gully Landfill and Macquarie Point Sewage Treatment Plant.
The Council is continuing to work towards further emission reduction. Recently it established an Energy Management Team to investigate ways of reducing energy use: electricity, gas and fuel (petrol and diesel) through out the Council.
A key initiative in the community sector is the Solar Hot Water Rebate – so far 50 systems have been approved.
Also the Council’s Corporate and Community Greenhouse Local Action Plan is under review. Through this it will include a range of strategies and actions to be implemented across the community to increase awareness about climate change, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Tasmania’s primary source of electricity is from Hydro power which is considered to be greenhouse neutral. However since Basslink and the impacts of low dam levels due to the drought, Tasmanian has been importing electricity from Victoria. Victoria’s electricity is sourced from brown coal and has significant greenhouse gas emissions associated with it. As a consequence the greenhouse gas emissions for Tasmania’s electricity use have tripled. So reducing our electricity consumption will lower emissions!!
The following show the increase in Tasmania’s electricity emissions factor since 2005.
The average Tasmanian home approximately uses 10,000 to 12,000 kWh per annum. Of this:
| Cooking | 4% |
| Lighting | 5-8% |
| Other Appliances |
6% |
| Refrigeration | 7% |
| Hot Water | 25% |
| Space Heating | 40-50% |
| Standby | 3-10% |
There are lots of things that we can do at home to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And what’s more they also save you money! So why not try some of the following:
For further information of 'cool' actions check out the following websites:
Australian Greenhouse Office: http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/gwci/index.html
Sustainable Living Tasmania: http://www.tasmanianenvironmentcentre.org.au/HomeEnergyDec07.pdf
Aurora Energy: http://www.auroraenergy.com.au/residential/energy_saving_tips/default.asp
“Climate change is an issue that is going to affect how we live our lives, do our jobs, what recreational activities we pursue and our local, national and international economies. There is virtually nothing about the way we live now that will not be affected in some way, large or small, by climate change impacts. Every action we take to increase awareness and address this issue is significant and reinforces the urgent need for action, both big and small.” Lord Mayor, Alderman Rob Valentine said.
