Last year when the Sydney Earth Hour was conducted, followed by Light’s Out London, I was not very happy with the initiative. Now this year, with more than 20 cities participating, it has become an internation event.

Well, the Earth Hour organizers say that “Earth Hour is about more than one night. Its about inspiring you everyday to make changes that will help achieve Earth Hour’s ultimate goal of reducing emissions by 5%.” That is good. Like some of the comedy lines on the radio, hopefully people did not switch off their lights and switched on their Plasma TVs to watch how much energy they saved.

However, the measurement systems used by their official releases do not suggest that.

The press release on AFP says that

Tens of millions of people switched off lightbulbs this weekend as part of a global campaign to throw the spotlight on climate change, organisers of the Australian-led ‘Earth Hour’ initiative said.

“We had 2.2 million last year; I reckon by the time we finally count it up, we will have about 100 million people involved around the world,” he said.

Energy Australia, which supplies much of Sydney’s electricity, said a drop of about 8.4 percent in energy usage had been recorded in the city during the hour, equivalent to 1.6 million light bulbs being switched off.

It is not important how much energy consumption decreased in the cities that participated for that hour but it will be interesting to see how many people were informed and involved in energy conservation before the event and how many increased their understanding after the event. That would be a good outcome.

100 million participants is a big number either way.

The issue is whether participants understand this to be a small part of the challenge or whether they think that energy conservation is easy. As we can see from the articles all around the world, the entire effort was on switching off lights but not on general energy conservation principles.

The Sustainable Living Foundation is conducting the Sustainable living festival in Melbourne on Feb 15th, 16th and 17th this week.

The Festival draws together diverse approaches that focus on social and ecological sustainability. Staged at Federation Square, this unique event fuses interactive displays, demonstrations, artworks, exhibits, designs, films, multimedia and live performances.

The festival’s goal is to make sustainability a living idea that consists of education, business, art, film and play.

I would love to be there but cannot attend due to previous commitments in Adelaide and also the India-Australia cricket match this Sunday. It is at times like these that I start to question the reason for living in Adelaide and moving to a lively city like Melbourne.

Gil Friend of Natlogic is conducting a webinar on Carbon footprint and reduction. It is a 4 session series based upon how to measure a company’s carbon footprint and ways to reduce.

All the sessions are right in the middle of my vacation plan. However, if anybody is interested they should check it out.

It’s been 2.5 years since I arrived in Australia and now at last I am going back to visit my beloved country. It has been a fantastic experience in Australia. Now, I need to go back and witness the rapid growth which India is experiencing first hand.

I will be reaching India on Oct 15th and staying for 6 weeks. If anybody wishes to catch up, I will be in the city of Hyderabad and will travel to other cities in November. Please e-mail me or leave a blog comment.

I am not sure if I can blog at all while on vacation but if something interesting comes up and I find the time I will share it here.

Have fun!

This week I have the opportunity to host the Carnival of the Green. This is a weekly event which captures the ideas that the green blogosphere has to offer. For more, check this initial post at Tree Hugger.

Last week’s Carnival was hosted at Karavans and next week’s carnival (October 8th) is at Planet on a Plate.

For this week, here are the submissions.

Sara Goldstein writes about “How to choose better-quality clothes” at The Bargain Queen on Fashion and Beauty. She says, “As long as public nudity is outlawed, we all have to buy clothes. Here’s some tips on Reducing the amount of clothing you need, by buying better-quality things that will last way longer.”

GP at Fishcreekhouse submits a post on Yellowstone going Green by Horsewomen. Here she explains the work of Xanterra, a company in the United States which took over ownership of of hotels and restaurants in many state and national parks and its drive towards sustainability.

Julie Dunlap reviews the book Nature’s Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick which chronicles the life of Thomas Bewick who “elevated the craft of wood engraving to a fine art”.

Jimmy Atkinson presents How to Get a Green Education | OEDb posted at OEDb: Online Education Database. Atkinson talks about the “green state of mind” and suggests that “one solution to how to achieve a green education is to focus on educational sources that focus on the environment and social constructs within that environment.”

Beth Terry presents Wait! Are you sure that’s recyclable? at the Fake Plastic Fish. Beth talks about the do’s and dont’s of household recycling. A good pointer to help your council but do keep in mind that these “do’s and dont’s” change from council to council. So check with your council before you do the right thing.

Mel Rimmer writes about Green Cleaning at Bean Sprouts. Rimmer says, “The internet has lots of pages of green cleaning tips, but many of them are confused and the tips don’t work. This blog entry helps you sort the good ones from the rubbish.”

HairySwede informs that Stockholm Rated the Most Livable City in the World at A Swedish American in Sweden. In a world of urbanization, the greening of cities are paramount.

Mike crunches the sales data on the Prius at Hybrid Car Review. Prius is fast picking up and “1 in 10 cars sold by Toyota in the US is a Prius”. Mike questions that “When 2 out of every 100 cars being sold in the US is a Prius, can you really call hybrids a niche?”.

Ali Kriscenski explains with a lot of images the SIEEB Solar Energy-Efficient Building in Beijing at Inhabitat. Ali says that this building is “Designed to maximize passive solar capabilities and fitted with state-of-the-art active solar elements, the SIEEB is a dynamic energy-efficient oasis that optimizes its urban location with ecological considerations.”

John discusses the recent Climate Change meeting of 16 nations’ Climate Change Leadership at A DC Birding Blog. He suggests that “Bush’s intervention in this week’s talks at the U.N. is likely to waste the time of leaders who actually want to accomplish some concrete results to stem climate change.”

eltiorob presents Helpful sites to encourage eating seasonal, local foods posted at At Home | Living from MORE TH>N.

Holly Ord presents Hippie posted at Menstrual Poetry. She talks about the “natural alternatives to disposables”.

Leon Gettler presents The challenges of going green posted at Sox First. Leon questions: “How do you make companies and countries go green? the fundamental issue is coming up with a scheme that will provide incentives for the developing world to cut emissions. It’s all very well for the developed nations to talk about emissions reductions but in places like China and India it’s a different story altogether.”

Corbett Kroehler writes about how Hurricanes Can Have Positive Results at Corbett Kroehler Keyboard Culture Global Warming. Corbett details the example of building a next-generation home with so much environmental sensitivity that they call it the American Standard Green Envirohome.

Jon provides an invitation to Green Festival – Save the Environment at The DC Traveler – Washington DC travel & tourism information.

That’s the Carnival for this week. I have enjoyed presenting it and I hope you have enjoyed reading it.

If you want to make a submission to the next Carnival at Planet on a Plate or want to host one yourself; check out the details at Tree Hugger.