The lights have gone, as had been said. This is going to be the longest power cut I may have to witness in this 8 month stay at the IIT Delhi – where power cuts mean small 20 seconds flip – flops. The occasion is the celebration of the Earth Hour. A ‘voluntary’ moratorium on the use of electricity for one hour on 28th of March, 2009. Well, the voluntary nature of the drive has been lost somewhere in the translation from I.A.S. - level English to peon - level English, because I heard the mess workers saying that the lights will be shut down, per force, from the main board, for an hour – like the blackouts during an air raid. As they had said, the power has gone, and I am left with an hour with only my laptop as a companion. Luckily its batteries are not under the jurisdiction of the administration of IIT Delhi!
Well, let me make myself very clear – I am not one of those who support indiscriminate exploitation of the Earth for human greed. Yet, I am definitely against the environmentalists and their gimmicks. In fact I am against any sort of gimmick, especially if it is purportedly based on some ‘serious’ issue. I feel the gimmicks make a mockery of the issues involved. I hate the candlelight vigils and candle light vigilantes, I hate human chains, the rallyists, the pamphleteers and I hate the Earth hour. So I intend to justify my hate in the following lines.
First of all, there is the simple cost benefit analysis. How much electricity will they save – if we do turn down our electrical systems for a measly hour in this long period of unabated industrial usage? I am sure more electricity would have been used in the publicity for the event. Quite a lot of trees would have been felled for the pamphlets.
Secondly, would it be wise to suddenly unload all our power plants and power infrastructure? I am not an electrical engineer, but I have read a little bit about power generation turbines, and a sudden 8:30 unloading by the whole population might be too much too quick for the governors and other feedback controlled devices there. Again, I am not crunching the numbers (simply because governors are the toughest things in the Theory of Machines!) but seriously, it is a step that might be regretted later – for a week or two.
Thirdly, how is a power cut of an hour any sort of Earth hour celebration in India? I do not know much about the durations of power cuts, but I would guess 83 % of Indian cities would be celebrating 3 to four hours of Earth Hour every day. The provincial towns might be dedicating half the day to the celebrations, while most villages would do so for about 20 hours. In fact, there are villages in India which have been celebrating Earth since the start of their existence – where people live and die celebrating an Earth lifetime! So, I am really amused when the green-wallahs direct us to celebrate Earth Hour – aren’t you?
[ As I finish typing this, the power returned – not the full hour! May be it was not even about the Earth Hour, but the violent thunderstorm that is raging outside. Still, it felt good writing it, so I am going to post it.]
Well, let me make myself very clear – I am not one of those who support indiscriminate exploitation of the Earth for human greed. Yet, I am definitely against the environmentalists and their gimmicks. In fact I am against any sort of gimmick, especially if it is purportedly based on some ‘serious’ issue. I feel the gimmicks make a mockery of the issues involved. I hate the candlelight vigils and candle light vigilantes, I hate human chains, the rallyists, the pamphleteers and I hate the Earth hour. So I intend to justify my hate in the following lines.
First of all, there is the simple cost benefit analysis. How much electricity will they save – if we do turn down our electrical systems for a measly hour in this long period of unabated industrial usage? I am sure more electricity would have been used in the publicity for the event. Quite a lot of trees would have been felled for the pamphlets.
Secondly, would it be wise to suddenly unload all our power plants and power infrastructure? I am not an electrical engineer, but I have read a little bit about power generation turbines, and a sudden 8:30 unloading by the whole population might be too much too quick for the governors and other feedback controlled devices there. Again, I am not crunching the numbers (simply because governors are the toughest things in the Theory of Machines!) but seriously, it is a step that might be regretted later – for a week or two.
Thirdly, how is a power cut of an hour any sort of Earth hour celebration in India? I do not know much about the durations of power cuts, but I would guess 83 % of Indian cities would be celebrating 3 to four hours of Earth Hour every day. The provincial towns might be dedicating half the day to the celebrations, while most villages would do so for about 20 hours. In fact, there are villages in India which have been celebrating Earth since the start of their existence – where people live and die celebrating an Earth lifetime! So, I am really amused when the green-wallahs direct us to celebrate Earth Hour – aren’t you?
[ As I finish typing this, the power returned – not the full hour! May be it was not even about the Earth Hour, but the violent thunderstorm that is raging outside. Still, it felt good writing it, so I am going to post it.]
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