In the height of hurricane season, it seems proper to feel a bit humbled by natural forces.  Forces that in spite of our best technologies we are unable to control or even marginally predict.  While the damage in comparison to Katrina was minimal, the storm still traveled across ten states and killed over 150 people in the United States and in the Caribbean.

This is all very unfortunate, but was it all bad?  Students of all ages were freed from the bounds of school  to marvel at amazing weather patterns and to *gasp* play without videogames, movies, and IPods.  Maybe they played in puddles or in the breeze. Later, perhaps due to the dark and exhaustion of real outdoor play, they actually went to bed on time!  My brother-in-law at Texas A&M  and my brother at Westlake High School both experienced cancellations.  At Westlake High School, students were released to make room for evacuees from Galveston and Houston who stayed for days in their gymnasiums and auditoriums. What better way to appreciate one’s own home and family then through community service? On a more personal level, I got three days off of work. I got to have purely candle-lit dinners with my husband, and I opened my windows!

And finally, when it comes to pure energy, think of how much money and coal the American people saved by having their power off!  In Kentucky, where I live, 300 thousand homes were without electricity and an estimated 2.6 million homes nation wide!  Let’s do some math!  Say each of these homes was without power for two days (and that’s conservative) and uses the average amount of energy in a day (around 4800 kW/hr).  Lets also say that electricity costs around $0.08 per kW/hr.  Here we go:

2 days x 2.6 million homes x  4800 kW/hr x $0.08 per kW/hr =$1,996,800,000

That’s right!  Ike saved the American people AT LEAST 2 billion dollars in energy savings!  So though I certainly wouldn’t want a similar storm to impede anyone in this way again, let’s look at the positive side of things! We learned how to appreciate energy and maybe you’ll take your city blackout day more seriously!

Voluntarily plunging into an hour of darkness….no, this isn’t a thrill-seekers adrenaline boost. It is Andy Ridley’s idea for raising awareness about global warming.

Some 2.2 million people participated in last year’s ‘Earth Hour’ in Sydney, cutting the central business district’s energy usage by more than 10 percent.

It is hoped that the movement would expand in 2009, which would be a particularly significant year since it is the deadline for United Nations talks to determine action going forward on the topic of climate change, as set after the Kyoto Protocol.

I (and our household) observe a sabbath from electricity one day out of seven, starting Friday at dusk and ending Saturday at nightfall. It works out to be about 25 hours where we refrain from driving our car, turning on lights, heating water, cooking, or using other electricity-run appliances. We do use an average size crock-pot for our hot lunch food during the day on Saturday, and some lights are set on timers so we can tend to the children. We also do heat the house (but don’t adjust the thermostat) since we have a baby. Our gasoline use is already low since my partner works from home and I walk to work- I work where the kids attend school so that’s easy. We get a tank of gas monthly, lately thats been ~$50 worth in our one vehicle.

So although we take time off from using some electricity, I wonder if we over-compensate by doubling up on laundry on Sundays, doing more errands during the week, and so on. Tim Blair and others
have a healthy skepticism as well.

But I would imagine for those people who do are used to having electricity immediately at their fingertips ALL the time, turning it off, even for one hour during the Earth Hour event tomorrow, will be a fascinating and [sorry...] enlightening experience!

Still trying into the hour spring forward? So are environmental researchers! Traditionally, daylight saving has been seen as a positive switch for the environment because of the decreased need for artificial lighting, which, with small appliances, accounts for 25% of United States’. In fact, the installation of daylight savings has always been for energy saving reasons (although not always environmental). According to the California Energy Commission, 1% of California is saved by each day daylight savings. New research that took place in Indiana indicates, however, that energy use increases just after daylight savings. Lara Grant and Matthew Kotchen, researchers at the University of California in Santa Barbara, conclude that electricity consumption increase 1 to 4 percent as a result of Daylight Savings Time.

According to the dates of DST practice prior to 2007, we estimate a cost to Indiana households of $8.6 million per year in increased electricity bills. Estimates of the social costs due to increased pollution emissions range from $1.6 to $5.3 million per year. (Does Daylight Savings Time Save Energy?)

While Americans might be leaving their lights off for longer, they seem to be turning their air conditioning in the Spring and heaters on the Fall. Remember to change your thermostats daily – turn it off when you leave for work and school and lower it when you get into bed.

Is it noblesse oblige or something more that is driving Google to a leading role toward a greener tomorrow? I’d love to see Google’s name on this list – there’s some impressive names already there. Like Shaklee, climate neutral since 2000.

Joshua S Hill brought to my attention today at Green Options that the world need not wait for government to do the work of the hungry consumer. To me, this means entrepreneurs and corporates alike will no longer have to make do with the energy sources that brought us the horseless carriage and the steam engine. Using oil and coal to run today’s technology is what’s called transitional technology. It’s time for a new normal and I’m buyin’.