This should become required reading before the City of Kingston renews your annual permit to hold opinions.

h/t Alan.

Stupid things I've heard today:

Stupid Guy 1: Earth Hour only made a 5% difference. Those dumb environmentalists! See how much it'll take to get to a 20% reduction in GHG levels? Hah! I've proved a point of some sort!
My reply: Using the Feb average numbers of hourly average energy usage, we saved about 925kWh 925MWh during a single earth hour. The average house uses 1kWh a month. That is a hell of a lot of power. Not bad for a first coordinated try, especially considering it was a symbolic awareness-raising event to send a message to politicians and policy-makers.
Stupid Guy 2: Hah! Base load is manufactured even if you don't use it! So you saved nothing! Hhaeheahheah!!
My reply: Base load is manufactured to meet the minimum possible nighttime demand. Intermediate and peak load serves the remainder of demand during most of the hours between daylight and about 23:00... and intermediate load is modified in real-time to match demand.
Stupid Guy 3:Climate change isn't even happening! You're all morons!
My reply: Also, the earth is flat! And dinosaurs roamed the earth along with cro magnon man! Who hunted them for sport!

• We were all sitting around on chairs and couches after dinner. I asked Thomas Homer-Dixon to come over and answer a student's question about the feasibility of using nuclear as an alternative power source, because the student was too shy to go over and ask him.

  Thomas Homer-Dixon: ... Nuclear power also poses a huge disposal problem. These nuclear cores have to be dismantled, and humans can't do it because these cores are so radioactive. They have to use special robots and equip these robots with diamond cutters. And then they have to figure out how to get rid of the materials...
  Me: And the robots!
  Thomas Homer-Dixon: (annoyed look)

  I'm sorry, Tad. I just love robots. And if you think about the spectre of having radioactive robots running around, I think you'll agree that we have to always be on our guard, against the inevitable uprising.

• A conversation I had about a zillion times:

  What I said:

  Me: ... and I'm also the Federal NDP Candidate for Kingston & the Islands.

  What they heard

  Me: ... and I'm also a leper! I advise that you back away slowly and avoid eye contact!

More later. Now, I'm off to Earth Hour, to give a speech! With words and everything!

Earth Hour Speech delivered at the City Hall event

Earth Hour is a global event to acknowledge humanity’s influence on climate change. This is a chance to demonstrate our shared commitment to reducing the energy we use and the burden we place on the environment.

Canada is a leader in participating in Earth Hour; we have one of the highest participation rates in the world. Kingston is joining more than one-hundred-and-fifty communities across the country in turning off our lights for one hour this evening.

We’re down here tonight because small actions have big consequences. On the first annual Earth Hour last year, the city of Sydney, Australia turned out unnecessary lights and decreased that day’s energy use by ten percent. But what they also did was to kick-start a movement that has taken off in a truly spectacular way. What we have here tonight is international grassroots direct action; tonight’s Earth Hour is a symbolic effort that shows us that we can work together, from the ground up, across all borders, to make a real impact.

Obviously, one hour is not enough. Canada uses more energy per capita than any other nation on earth. And Canada is the sixth-largest energy consumer in the world. Most of our energy comes from fossil fuels, so every reduction we make in our energy use directly reduces our greenhouse-gas emissions, and reduces Canada’s impact on climate change.

I’m sure we all recycle – sorting our paper, cans, and bottles into blue and grey boxes and leaving them on the curb for the City to collect. But of the environmental “four Rs” – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover – the most important is Reduce. This is the key to combatting climate change: It’s kind of ironic that, to more, we have to do less. We have to consume less. We have to use less.

We must take the principles we’re sharing here, and put them into action in our everyday lives. We can’t stop with this one event. Turning out our lights for one hour tonight will save a truly startling amount of energy, but reducing our energy use every day will make the real difference.

Earth Hour is an effort by citizens; we can’t rely on governments to lead the way. Stephen Harper famously denied the science about climate change. Stephen Harper’s Conservative government reneged on Canada’s commitment to the Kyoto accord, to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The Conservative government slashed national programmes established to fight climate change and promote renewable energy. They are more in the dark in Parliament than we are here tonight, and the real power they waste every day is the power to show principled leadership.

The science is clear: climate change is real, it is happening, and it is caused by human actions. It is the biggest threat to the Earth’s environment that has ever existed. Public-opinion polls consistently show that Canadians care about climate change. The proof is right here, with all of us who came out tonight in the cold and dark. By turning off our lights for one hour, we are showing our leaders that it is possible to combat climate change. By participating in Earth Hour, we send a powerful message to Parliament and to the rest of the world: that we are concerned about our environment, and that we are willing to act to preserve and protect it.

It’s up to us – each and every one of us. We must take personal responsibility for reducing our energy footprint. It can be as minor as turning off unnecessary lights. Lighting uses between five and fifteen percent of electricity in homes, and one-third of electricity in offices. It can be as easy as shutting down computers and televisions when they’re not in use. These appliances use between ten and sixty percent of their total energy while in “sleep” or “stand-by” modes. It is as simple as leaving the car at home and taking the bus, cycling, or walking.

We can combat climate change. It begins here – with us – tonight – with one hour of darkness for a brighter future.

Now, perhaps I need to take a refresher course in Canadian federal law. Because, the last time I checked, the only way politicians can change the laws of our country is to pass legislation, or to pass an act repealing legislation. Apparently, however, I missed the day where they taught us that it's as simple as giving a speech:

... emissions have increased to the point where the Conservatives argue targets are now impossible to reach without triggering economic devastation. As for the Liberal private member's bill, the government argues that it was effectively nullified when the Commons approved last fall's Throne Speech that said Canada's Kyoto targets can't be met. (emphasis mine) - Globe and Mail

Ok, so, hold on a minute. The conservative position is that you don't actually have to pass any legislation, you simply have to give a speech that outlines your legislative and policy agenda for the next session of parliament.

Why bother holding parliament? We'll just have a throne speech each year. And then we can adjourn and go skiing.

Canadian blogger Jay Currie drives me nuts when he puts quotation marks around "global warming", especially since it's not warming, it's change, with cooling and warming to various degrees. He was recently trumpeting various critics with links to such forward-thinking people as Small Dead Animals, which got me to thinking.

The thing that global warming critics have in common is that they are all people who don't understand that scientific consensus still allows for multiple theories, and disagreement on the details, without negating the entire field. Particularly since most of the critics quote people who quote people who don't understand the data anyway - or misrepresent the data to suit their purposes (*cough* Bjorn *cough*).

(And, of course, there is the tendency for climate change deniers to deny other things - peak oil, for example, will still be a problem even if we're not overheating our atmosphere. If we use energy more efficiently or find other sources (and I so don't mean biofuels), we will help ameliorate (supposed) anthropogenic climate change incidentally. The right tends to lump environmental issues into the "NONONONO" category without considering broader issues like resource-use and sustainability.)

So imagine my surprise when real scientists get ahold of this crap. It is no surprise to most Canadians that a lot of what gets published in the National Post is... er... slanted, but it's so cute when it becomes internationally mocked for its biased, crappy reporting.