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Events Information Kuwait

Earth Hour is Stupid

Can we get solar farms instead??

The Ministry of Electricity and Water in Kuwait has confirmed its participation in Earth Hour 2009. The ministry will provide the campaign with all the required consumption statistics before, during, and after the event. Also, the streets’ lights management in the ministry has confirmed switching off two light bulbs per street light in about 11.6 Km of the total length of the Arabian Gulf Street, one of the most famous streets in Kuwait, without affecting the public safety. This length represents around 60% of the total street’s length.

The Ministry of Electricity and Water find this event a good opportunity to show the bad consequences of over energy consumption in the community and its effects on the environment.

Thanks Yousef!

60 replies on “Earth Hour is Stupid”

tff: 1 hour isn’t going to make a difference. I think this is another problem, some people participate in earth hour and think they’ve done their part. the easiest way to start going green, swap out all your light bulbs with power saving ones and turn off the lights and tv when you leave the house.

lensman if it makes people aware that they should start reducing power consumption thats great but you dont want some people like tff to think that this one hour is all they need to do to make a difference…

Whoever thinks that turning the lights off for one hour a year is being green, needs a brain surgery. Earth Hour is a great awareness campaign, people will eventually get the idea, hopefully.

I think they should do the Earth Hour thing at least once a week!
then when people get the idea they should do it everyday.

After burning all that energy with zillion volts of electricity lighting up half of Kuwait to show appreciation on National Day and Liberation Day… now we decide to save energy. Major oil companies still have their fancy lighting still up there. For starters find another way to decorate your monuments than wasting energy and if not then pull them down in time and stop lighting them even after a month of past celebrations.

Mr. ****
oil company’s using the fancy lights to light up the process units and it is extremely hazardous when the unit is in operation without lights!! how can u see where r u going and how will u notice any leakage in between the pipes and equipments!

It is a start ,,, think positive !! At least we will be able to know the statistics,, it will raise awareness !!

Mark:

Forget about Earth Hour. Kuwait is considering building a nuclear reactor for energy!!!!!!!!! They should build solar farms in the damn empty desert or at least FIX THE DAMN POWER STATIONS!! This way, if an idiot messes things up (We all know how many idiots in MOE since every two months an explosion happens in one of the oil refineries) our children will not end up with 4 legs or 4 arms!

People will only start saving electricity when Kuwait’s electricity grid crashes and we see power outages on a regular basis.Kuwait has the perfect climate to utilize solar energy.

i truely beleive that all ur hearts r in the rite place.. but let me set the records straight: bringing earth hour to q8 was no the ministrys’ idea. we r a small group of volunteers that wish to use earth hour to attract ppls attention in order to spread awareness bout global warming. so its not about 1 nite or 1 hour.. its about showing ppl that there r little things that every1 is capable of doing in order to fight this phenomena. ppl won’t change their light bulbs to energy efficient 1s unless they understand and beleive. furthermore, we need a strong voice to make a difference in our country and thats what we’re hoping for

To all green and non-green people:
Green hour is basically voting, if theres no the usual major consumption of energy on that hour, they will most probably then try to find a replacable solution. its just an hour with no lights.

@ Bo Bader “every two months an explosion happens in one of the oil refineries” are you pulling statistics out of your butt ? incidents happen all around the world in oil refineries, there has been null LWC 4 years in a row. MOE/MOO has the most efficient, dedicated, and hardworking employees in Kuwait ministries.

u know wht Mark ! it may seem stupid but never the less it is a small effort towards making things better…encouragment for baby steps towards a better environment is necessary …discounting them is just immature!

Mr. Vampire… i aint talking about the operational lighting… i was indicating all the fancy occasional decorative lighting on the buildings to show who or which building looks glamourous. check Ahmadi.. liberation day and national days lights are still on,,, today is March 26th.. There was a building in Kuwait city lit up so damn bright that the heat from the light was felt even metres away. Now tell me isnt that wasting energy. We have street lights and they r more than enough to show us our path.

In some countries each area takes a turn to stay shut and conserve energy.

Mr.****
i can’t agree with you more. it’s frustrating and discouraging actually
what makes me “insane” is seeing house made wipe out dust and dirt’s with a water hose. water consumption is equally important to the power.

I don’t think it’s stupid trying to save Earth even if it was for an hour.
Anyway I think they are trying to make people aware of the problem, it’s a great way to promote it…you should know that since you work in advertising…it’s just like last year when Google turned their index to Black, it was useless because they didn’t really save any power but in a way they did promote the event by making people wonder what was that about.

I do love the Sun and of course I do support Solar power, although we have a sunny weather almost every single day of the year yet this is not enough…I think nuclear power is more reliable and effective despite the passive part of it.

Sweety for starters i am a “Ms”… hehe!

I beleive there was a law in between that only limited usage of water shod be used for washing cars and so on. But eventually that faded off too. Now i see my whole damn street drenched for just washing one car.

Is there any respect for the word of law.

I dont blame the government its the people who need to step up. Sad… we are gonna scrape our lives with these circumstances but in a couple of years the next generation will be suffering and fortunately or unfortunately it is thanks to the violators of today.

I believe that saving the earth is a life-style choice just like living healthy. It involves several smaller choices like using energy saving bulbs, driving a car that burns less fuel and also one that has a lower CO2 impact, saving water whenever we can, using lesser harmful chemicals in our daily routines, and even using less paper in our work places, just to name a few. So we need to rethink the whole idea of going green.

@****
Yeah, there must have been a law concerning the amount of water used to wash cars. There USED to be one concerning wearing the seatbelt when driving and there WAS one about talking on the mobile when driving, but nobody gives a shit about the law!

YADA YADA YADA YADA BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH.

Law enforcing water conumption??? = Numerous Car Washing stations charging much more than the trival 2.5 or 3 Kd to wash your car = to most customers saying it aint worth it = To buisness slowing down leading to eventual closure = to pissed off owner using influence aka wasta to speak to some big wig who in turn speaks to some MP = to the all famous grilling of some minister = to either the law being scrapped or better yet parliment being dissolved. Synopsis it aint worth it .. Waste Away and be Happy . Fuck the Earth. As they say in Kuwait who needs laws when we have money 😉

Same shit applies to all the other laws in this country… God Forbid while enforcing any of them you happen to rub the wrong person the wrong way forget yourself your entire family could get FUCKED.

The laws are for the poor as they say in the local lingo maskeen people. Coz they dont have money they dont have wasta so yeah they HAVE TO follow the law.

Ever hear of a local with wasta listening to Tarseed in the height of summer when they say keep your AC temp down or put off the lights if you happen to be on vacation ?? To save energy ?? Hell No!! His house is like a freezer 24/7 and lit up like a christmas tree whether he is in town or not coz after all he has enough wasta to cover his bills or to make them dissapear all togather.

So mark is right .. it is stupid .. Kuwait is so desperate to be considered modern and wants to be a part of the Go Green & Save the Earth scene so they shut down a part of the lighting of their entire road network ??? For one hour ??? Yeah right Better if they had solar farms to harvest the one thing this country has in spades sun & heat.

As for Nuclear power in this country?? In the right hands it will be one the best things for this country. Again In the right hands. Not some hired hand who has absolutely no knowledge but enough WASTA to get the job. This country has some extremely highly educated local Kuwaiti engineers some of whom are friends of mine and all who agree that this country is wasting away its natural wealth without even knowing it. So yeah if the job of operating a nuclear plant was left in their hands not some of hire through wasta and poltical contacts proceess then I would sleep easier at night not expecting a mushroom cloud over the horizon when I wake up the next day.

why do we need to go nuclear? While I agree that KOC/MOE/whoever do a good job in keeping standards high, there’s still a chance that things can go wrong.
The problem with decision makers is that they believe using solar energy is still an experimental strategy. Other countries rely on solar systems to provide a substantial part of their consumable energy. Even the huge US naval base in San Diego is solar powered. Kuwait is in a zone that has the maximum amount of sunlight exposure (time and concentration) – it’s a shame not to use it.
Think of the amount of energy that goes into desalination. There are proven technologies that extract moisture from the air using only solar energies. Why can’t we be forward-thinking about these issues?
Yes, our power plants are inefficient and power hungry. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re the cause of much of the pollution we have in the atmosphere and in the sea. They use really powerful chemicals to clean out the oil tanks – organophosphates, since after a while, the tanks can harbor kinds of bacteria that decompose the oil and render it noncombustible. These chemicals can basically decompose any kind of organic material. A leak of this stuff can be deadly, as organophosphates are modified to act as pesticides and nerve agents.
I remember when the tarsheed campaign was started a couple of summers ago – there was a sign on the pedestrian bridge near seif palace – “nabee akhdar” = “we want it green.” i was happy, i thought this was a public gesture aimed at starting a public environmental consciousness. Then i realized they were talking about that stupid meter. I was disappointed.
At the end of the day, I think Kuwait needs to adopt a ubiquitous strategy of sustainability. No need to be polar about it, but have a common sense approach of maintaining, or rather improving, the environmental status quo. The burning of oil wells, the draining of the iraqi marshes and other events led to our horrible situation. Instead of dreaming of utopian developments that present a rather vapid face of development, we should strengthen our ground and develop a national technological development that focuses more on renewable energies.
Celebrate one hour to bring into focus on our energy / environmental problems, is better than not doing anything at all.

What is this nuclear nonsense. Kuwait will counter balance Irans influence?

I shudder to think of the consequences of providing any GCC country with nuclear power technology.

I’m big project engineer with eqyptian degree.. I will run nuclear plant. Can’t be that much different than oil refinery I hired expat to run.

Habibi.. I from Jahra. Give me good job like Homer Simpson.. I have a wasta.. I send Indian to Eqypt for my degree.. Mashallah.

Wallah.. I’m big MP from Taima. I will grill nuclear minister because cousin waleed didn’t get job there.

Security Adviser: don’t get me mixed up in your i hate kuwait rant. i didn’t say kuwait was stupid for participating in earth hour, i said earth hour was stupid.

Kuwait lives in its own world..like there’s nothing beyond it. So serious matters to do with Carbon emission, Greenhouse gases, Energy conservation…are obviously beyond their understanding, let alone action!

1 Hour is enough to charge up the capacitors and cool down the reactors. In my own opnion it’s a great experimental solution to the electricity problems kuwait might face during the summer

Baziz

Earth Hour is Not about going green for just an hour and feeling like we don’t need to do anything else. It is a VOTE showing that we acknowledge climate change needs to be solved. The ministry is collecting the results so that our votes ( switching off for an hour) can be sent to the climate summit in Copenhagen in December.

It is also an opportunity to bring the world’s attention to the problem. It is not done to make you think that switching off for an hour removes your responsibility of doing something everyday and educating yourself about the issues. It is just everyone doing something at the same time for the same hour to send a message. It does not mean we don’t push for solar power, or do useful things all the other hours of our lives.

Do your bit everyday. Earth Hour doesn’t prevent you from doing it.

I will never believe in “Global Warming”. .. Just look at all the cold weather, snow storms etc… Ice packs are actually getting thicker in the Artics. We have all these people (government) that are looking to prosper from this giant hoax. If we are so arrogant that we believe that we can change the climate on this planet… then why is the temperature going up as well on Mars??? No cars or people there… Why was the hottest temperatures ever recorded back in the 1930s?? A lot less people and cars then. I run 8 computers at my home, run my regular lights all the time water my lawn, wash my car, flush toilets… I use all I can and enjoy life. When this crazy “turn your lights off to save earth” rolls around… I am going to turn EVERYTHING on in my house.. ovens, stoves, hot water heater, A/C to full cold, run all my systems and let the water flood the yard. We have plenty of oil for my life time and many others after that. And those crazy electric cars and hybrids…did you know that after 10 years the batteries need replacing… did you know that they are having to store them like spent nuclear rods?? How good is that for the planet?? When you plug the car in… how is the energy being produced to charge it up … ? probably from good old coal. Don’t buy into all this “feel good” stuff about planet saving .. it’s all a joke.

I dont think it’s stupid. Earth hour was first held in Sydney in 2007 where 2.2 million residents participated. Following Sydney’s lead, many other cities around the world adopted the event in 2008. It reminds people of the greenhouse effect and about wasting energy. Also people will ask why is it being held and this will help educate them about the greenhouse effect.

cheers

@ Mark

Dont hate Kuwait mate.. matter of fact I love this country , like most people on this blog I was born here. So its not the country..its the accepted norm of the system that runs it that I hate. I have seen this country go from great to good to bad to worse by the people who are left in charge to run it. I am sorry if you felt that I was involvilng you in my I hate Kuwait rant , I wasnt. And it wasnt a I hate Kuwait Rant. I am just bugged when I know a country as modern as this is not doing more than shutting down street lights for an hour. It has the potential do much more but isnt going about doing it. For petes sake they uproot trees cause its not sanctioned to grow on public grounds!!!! Any ways………..Once again please accept my apologies.

Just so more people don’t misunderstand the idea of climate change, it is about climate changing, not about it just getting hotter. Average temps are getting hotter, but that does not mean that cold snaps and extreme weather of every kind is not part of it. In fact the cold year was predicted by all models because we are in a natural cooling cycle, and yet despite that we had the 7th hottest January on record.

Here are a list of the extremely unscientific arguments made by industry funded climate change deniers who are mostly non-specialists and often not even scientists.

https://gristmill.grist.org/skeptics

It’s time to stop arguing and start solving the problem.

thanks Abbas and nice shot of the towers Mark.

The EARTH HOUR is just another one of those stupid ideas from those eco-freaks so stoned out on stupididy and their granola their brains which is the size of walnuts no longer even works im not planning to turn out my lights for the sake of a bunch of green stupidheads

Loved the title, but didn’t get what you were trying to prove. That hour was a waste of time. And besides, when all of those cities and people turned back on their power after the hour was finished they only caused more power consumption. And also what does saving energy going to do for the world even if it did work? Nothing. It’s just a convienient scam created to produce someone’s money in their wallet. And you people are dumb enough to believe a man who tells you not to use power, yet he rides in a limo alone that consumes tons of gasoline, rides in a private jet all to himself around the world spreading this scam, and lives in a large mansion consuming tons of electricity into 24 different rooms that he never even goes into nor has anyone in. No. It’s just something for him to be powerful with and receive extra money for his wasteful spending.

Forget this EARTH HOUR crap CELEBATE CARBON BELCH DAY and tell that granola munchers ti GO TAKE A HIKE

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