harikumar1964's blog

Earth hour is an annual international initiative organized by WWF ( world wide fund for nature) on the last Saturday of March every year  since 2008 to raise awareness among people towards the need to take action on Climate Change. It is operated through a request to individuals and organizations to switch off non-essential  electrical devices for one hour- the period being 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM local time this year.

Let me give a brief history of Earth hour. Even the fiercest skeptics have started acknowledging the human induced climate change. We all have to accept the very basic fact that at least for another 1000 years or so, this planet will be the only dwelling place for life forms of earth. We can use the bounties nature gave us but can’t abuse it. We need to get out of the carbon dependent  economy we have built so far. Earth hour is an initiative in this direction.

From an experimental power switch off drive in Thailand in 2005, WWF Australia took a cue and organized the first ever Earth hour in 2007 in Sydney. This was a huge success with over 2 million participation.

Global observance of  Earth hour started in 2008 at the behest of WWF. Internationally more than 30 million took part in this event. And this year India- one of the emerging and leading emitters of CO2 - is also actively taking part in the event.

You may wonder what impact it can have by switching lights off for one hour? Let me give some calculations with an Indian perspective.

CO2 is formed when 1 atom of Carbon (atomic weight of 12) and 2 atoms of oxygen (atomic weight of 16) combines to form CO2 with atomic  weight of 44. This means 1 Kg of Carbon produces roughly 3.6 Kg CO2.

Generally Indian Power generation Coal (F grade) has fixed carbon percentage of 25-30. That means 100 Kg coal contains roughly 25-30 Kg carbon. Of the total power generation of India of around 1,30,000 MW( Installed capacity), almost 70% is through thermal. That means, of the total generation of around 1,00,000 MWhr ( at 70% Plant load factor), 70,000 MW will be through coal based power plants.  Our plants on an average consume 0.75 tons of coal per MW power generation. That means every hour, for 70000 MW power generation we burn 52500 tons of coal. This produces almost equivalent amount of CO2 (52290 tons).

Now let us assume, through this effort of earth hour, we could bring down the power consumption by 10% (this is highly ambitious and factually unlikely). With power generation from coal  coming down to  63000 MWhr instead of 70000 ,CO2 emission would also fall to  47600 tons. This works out to,  in  this one hour, we pump 5000 tons less CO2.

We all know, one of the major absorbers of CO2 is trees. But do you know, a tree roughly absorbs only  15-20 Kg of CO2 per year. This  5000 tons reduction in  CO2 emission is equivalent of the total  CO2 absorption of 3,33,333 trees in a year! Just think about it. And these figures are for just one country.

So I request each one of you to kindly be a part of this global initiative. Switch off your residential  electrical appliances between 8:30 PM and 9:30 PM tomorrow (28^th March), spend some time out in the open with family  -  enjoy a quiet stroll or play with the kids in a park. Watch the twinkling stars and enjoy the night sky like never before.  

Let’s  make this event a big success. We have inherited this planet in reasonable good health from our predecessors. It is our responsibility to hand it over to the posterity in the best possible condition. Let us all work towards that. Thank you.

Hari Kumar

(The author is a friend of WWF india, but ironically working in coal based power industry)

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