27,200 people have now signed up to participate in Earth Hour 2008 - and the number of businesses has risen from to 1,214 (from around 300 when we first started paying attention). And the Earth Hour 2008 group here on Gather is now at 163 members.
The number of cities & towns committed to participating also continues to grow....in Central Ontario, alone, the map is getting pretty full :)
There is a new video available on the TO star site as well - this one gives a tour of North America's largest coal fired electrical plant, Nanticoke. It used more than 8 billion kilograms of coal last year to keep our computers running, and our lights lit.
Recent daily tips from the Toronto Star have included things like:
- get rid of the old beer fridge (a 1975 model uses about 4x as much hydro as a current model)
- clean or replace your furnace filter
- Buy foam sleeve insulation for your hot water pipes at the hardware store and wrap it around the first nine feet off your water heater. It will cost only a few dollars and save around 13 kilograms of greenhouse gases a year
- Visit the tips archive for more ways that you can conserve energy & save money doing it.
And the Weekly Challenge for this week is - hopefully - something that we are all doing anyway ....and something that those of you who aren't will be more willing to try than last week's challenge! (I'm still shaking my head over the number of people - both here & on the TO site - that weren't willing to even consider giving up meat ONE DAY A WEEK! We did it - and will again this week - it didn't hurt. Honest.)
It is to be more careful about the water we use in our households by:
- turn off the tap while you shave or brush your teeth
- replace washers on anything that drips
- don't prerinse dishes before you put them in the dishwasher anyway - and if you handwash, don't rinse with running water; fill a second sink/tub instead
- Install a low-flow showerhead and faucets
- install low-flow toilets next time
Got more water conservations tips? Please feel free to share them in your comment(s).
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