After Earth Hour: Moving beyond mere carbon hype

Now that Earth Hour for this year has been marked, it is appropriate to ask if symbolism is the only thing that folks are capable of in grappling with carbon emissions. Unfortunately, power plants do not shut down for Earth Hour and in fact, more power plants are put on “spinning reserve” purposes for the anticipated turn-on of electrical loads after the hour passes.

Climate change has been in the headlines for years and it is hard to believe that we are still at the stage where symbolic gestures are still needed in lieu of actual public action.

So what are some simple things that people can do to actually cut carbon? It won’t be as striking as front page photos of major landmarks in the dark, but actions these really work. Energy efficiency is one.

For starters, the heaviest loads are often heating loads and motor loads. Avoid several sessions of ironing your clothes, and instead try to iron the entire pile in one go if possible.

Turn off the coffee-maker when the pot is empty. I have often seen coffee-makers with empty pots left on, which means the only thing that gets heated is the hotplate and the air inside the coffee pot.

Motor loads include air-conditioners, refrigerators and electric fans. Keeping to just the right temperature, defrosting your freezer, insulating the windows and closing doors, washing and cleaning air-con air filters and fan blades, ensure that your motor driven appliances are not overworked and thus not drawing more electricity than absolutely needed.

These maintenance fixes will lessen your consumption, not just for a symbolic hour, but oftentimes for an entire month before these require repetition.

Car owners can try to use public transportation more often, or carpool. If they plan to use their cars, ensuring that these are properly tuned-up will lessen their carbon output. Every litre of petrol burned releases roughly 2.5kg of CO2 into the atmosphere, and often if the engine is poorly maintained, also releases black soot (or black carbon) which has been found to be a very powerful climate change agent and undoubtedly a public health risk.

Of course, efforts to bring more renewable and clean energy power into the grid need to continue – including solar, wind, biomass and even nuclear power. This is driven more by policies and incentives like having a feed-in-tariff, or a carbon tax, or a cap and trade system, among others.

Symbolism may be fine for causes not yet well-known to the public. But for climate change which has been dominating our conversations for many years, there is no substitute for action.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dennis Posadas is an engineer, an Asia-based fellow of the Climate Institute, and author of Greenergized.