A couple of updates

Earth Hour 2018  a feel-good exercise that does nothing

I blinked and missed it.  Earth Hour, the purely symbolic hour when the lights go out and people profess their about caring about the earth.  Note the “symbolic” part.  If this was a serious endeavor, the internet would shut down, businesses would shut down, TV would stop broadcasting, etc.  There’s  no substance here, just symbolism.  Virtually no electricity was saved.  In fact, a great deal was used promoting the virtue of Earth Hour and how important it was.  More electricity was probably used than was ever saved by turning off the lights for an hour.

It’s important to understand that lighting is one of the lowest electrical uses out there.  Many commercial buildings have used fluorescent lighting for decades.  Now, with LED, the usage will go further down.  For homeowners, virtually no difference is made when using LED or CFL lighting, unless they leave their lights on 24/7.  The LEDs work exceptionally well and have no mercury like the CFLs and don’t glow yellow as is common with fluorescent lighting.  Changing to these is fine, but one should not look for a major drop in their electric bill. 

It's good to care about the planet and to conserve energy, but it has to be real, not some feel-good useless ploy.

Weather 2018 East Coast USA

Four Nor’easters in USA:  This is not unusual.  Nor’easters have occurred in varying numbers and intensity throughout history.  This is not climate change, this is weather and normal climate behavior.  Some years there are more storms, some less.  There is more impact now because of airline flights, traffic and the sheer number of people in many areas.  It’s not climate changing, it’s people and where they live and whether or not they have realistic expectations of weather and climate.  More and more, people have very unrealistic beliefs about what is dubbed “extreme weather” and how often it occurred.  It’s not changing—we are.