Earth Day

[David3]

Check out today's Google Doodle!

If you click on the Google Doodle, you play a little game where you're a honeybee. As you visit flowers, you learn more about bees. I knew almost nothing about them.
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[David3]

I'll participate in Earth Day Live and do other things I need to do for school, internship or personal business up until 2 pm. But I think spending Earth Day entirely on-line (even if a lot of it is for a good cause) is frankly ridiculous and delusional since it's EARTH DAY and using technology and electricity usually requires fossil fuels.

So after my Zoom meeting for my internship, I'm shutting everything down from 2 pm on Earth Day (tomorrow) for 24 hours until 2 pm Thursday. No phone, no lap top, only enough water for things like drinking-hand washing-teeth brushing, and little to no electricity or gas (I'll pretend I'm camping in a cabin and use sunlight or candles or go to sleep). No shopping in town, either. If I get chilly I'll put on layers, if I eat it'll be food that can be eaten cold or that was previously prepared. Camping without camping.

I'm also going to do fun stuff like read, take a hike in the woods, meditate and do yoga or qigong from memory, maybe plant these California poppy seeds I have, etc.

Surprisingly, home electronics use very little electricity. The biggest energy users in the home are appliances that heat, cool, or pump.

The biggest electricity users in the home are air conditioners, refrigerators, freezers, electric space heaters, and swimming pool pumps: Electric Usage Chart | Efficiency Vermont . A laptop computer uses perhaps $1 of electricity per month.

The newer TVs use so little electricity. You can get 64 inch TVs that only use $16 of electricity per year to operate: ENERGY STAR Most Efficient 2020 — Televisions . A huge improvement over the old CRT TV sets of 30 years ago.

The LED light bulbs also use very little electricity. A 16 watt LED bulb has the same brightness as the old 100 watt incandescent light bulbs: These LED bulbs offer 100 watts worth of light: Which is best? . If you use that 16 watt LED bulb for 5 hours a day, it will only cost about 2 cents' worth of electricity per day.

If you live in California, almost half of your electricity comes from hydroelectric, solar, geothermal, and wind energy: California - State Energy Profile Overview - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
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[The Master Of Design]

Earth Day 50!

For me every day is earth day

 

[Lou]

For me every day is earth day

Happy Earth Day 50.005!

 

[Forest Nymph]

Surprisingly, home electronics use very little electricity. The biggest energy users in the home are appliances that heat, cool, or pump.

The biggest electricity users in the home are air conditioners, refrigerators, freezers, electric space heaters, and swimming pool pumps: Electric Usage Chart | Efficiency Vermont . A laptop computer uses perhaps $1 of electricity per month.

The newer TVs use so little electricity. You can get 64 inch TVs that only use $16 of electricity per year to operate: ENERGY STAR Most Efficient 2020 — Televisions . A huge improvement over the old CRT TV sets of 30 years ago.

The LED light bulbs also use very little electricity. A 16 watt LED bulb has the same brightness as the old 100 watt incandescent light bulbs: These LED bulbs offer 100 watts worth of light: Which is best? . If you use that 16 watt LED bulb for 5 hours a day, it will only cost about 2 cents' worth of electricity per day.

If you live in California, almost half of your electricity comes from hydroelectric, solar, geothermal, and wind energy: California - State Energy Profile Overview - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
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Yeah, I know where my electricity comes from (and hydroelectric is actually bad in some ways, dams hurt salmon). I am signed up for 100% renewable on my home plan.

We also know here that the biggest fossil fuel user in our house is the gas heater, so we stopped using it and only use space heaters in our bedroom as needed.

Using fossil fuels for Earth Day in any capacity seems hypocritical to me no matter how you rationalize it. On Earth Hour everyone turns everything off. I spent Earth Hour last month eating my dinner by candlelight and writing in a paper journal.

I did join in the Earth Day Live celebration and got to see Pope Francis, Ed Begley and his daughter, and listened to some music. I also adopted a bat as my charity out of my stimulus check.

Living off grid or without fossil fuels even temporarily is about mindfulness, it's about divorcing yourself from the modern attitude that you're somehow owed all of these conveniences. And the idea that you can connect with Earth from your laptop when something called "techno despair" literally exists for people who spend too much time in front of screens is hysterically funny to me. It misses the point.

 

[Lou]

Tomorrow is Earth Day 2021!

What's going on?

 

[Lou]

Earth Day Eve - Free Virtual Concert.

National Geographic kicking off Earth Day with free virtual concert special tonight

Travel expert Jessica Nabongo, the first documented Black woman to have traveled to every country in the world, will host Nat Geo's Earth Day Eve 2021.

abc7chicago.com

 

[Lou]

16 virtual events and outdoor activities you can do to celebrate Earth Day this year​

16 virtual events and outdoor activities you can do to celebrate Earth Day this year

Whether it's a webinar, volunteering to better your community or simply learning about pollinators, here are 15 ways to celebrate Earth Day this year.

www.indystar.com

 

[Lou]

To celebrate Earth Day 2021 (Thursday, April 22), NASA is hosting a virtual Earth Day event – from Wednesday, April 21, through Saturday, April 24 – focused on how to live more sustainably on our home planet, and exploring the connections between Earth’s atmosphere, water cycle, forests, fields, cities, ice caps, and climate. The program – called #ConnectedByEarth – will feature live presentations by NASA scientists, conversations w

| EarthSky

For Earth Day 2021 (April 22), NASA highlights science and technology that is helping us live more sustainably on our home planet and adapt to natural and human-caused changes. Here's how to participate.

earthsky.org