Live Earth

btw, i bought a package of 15 of those new florescent screw in type bulbs that are "supposed" to last 5 years and only one of them has lasted over 3 months.

I put those in my music room (keeping it on topic :wink: ) and had the same experience - they die within a few months. Terrible product.

Wonder if those black-light posters are bad for the ozone layer ...

I think we should go solar energy.

And wind power :D

I'm an electrical engineering technology student and although I agree that pollution is a problem (personally I think global warming does exist, but even if you disagree I think lots of people can at least admit that creating less pollution wouldn't hurt), I have had discussions with professors and have been told that solar and wind power have their limitations: mainly the fact that wind and solar power do not put out anywhere near the power of coal, nuclear or gas, but I am in no way an expert :D

Someone mentioned something about fluorescent lighting: I have heard rumours from people that they actually contain materials that are hazardous to the environment. It's only a rumour though, so if anyone knows for sure that would be helpful.

Anyways, as far as the concert goes I was quite happy to see my two favorite bands at the London show: the Red hot chili peppers and Metallica. I really liked Bon Jovi, The Smashing Pumpkins, Dave Matthews Band, Roger waters. But I think Spinal Tap was the best part of the show hands down.

When it comes to the environment issue, I think James Hetfield said it best at the end of Metallica's set: "Think for yourself".

Wind power? We could put those turbines up all over the country and still count's supply just Amsterdam with energy. Let's face it, if we want to expand and keep up our way of living nuclear fusion is the only way. So let's just bite the bullet and spend some serious money on it to make sure it's done and safe in a few decades. As for all the 'let's change a lightbulb' crap: if all humans and everything we've made would be gone tomorrow from this planet Co2 output would decrease with about 1-2%. Changing a lightbulb won't even change 1% in your own energy usage, and most comes from corporations anyway, so let's average that to 0.3%. So if we seriously start with the lightbulb stuff we'll lower the CO2 output with no less then 0.02*0.003=0.00006%. Wicked. So even if CO2 output had an immediate and linear impact on temperature in Holland would drop with around 0.0012 degrees. Whoohooo!

Ah well, in the 70s we went ape that we'd be out of oil in 2007. Officially our last drop of oil should have been used 7 years ago. Then we had the acid rain of the early nineties that would kill the planet if we didn't pay a lot of money, after which the millenium bug came, which would kill the planet if we didn't pay a lot of money, and now we've got global warming, which will kill our planet if we don't pay a lot of money. Right, whatever.

Oh, we had the warmest winter and the warmest spring in our recorded history this year. Because of Global Warming, ofcourse. But oh me oh my we're having an extremely cold and rainy summer. This means it's impossible that Co2 is solely responsible for the temperature, it makes it even unlikely that it contributes *that* much. So lets set it at 25%, long live our new lifebulbs and their glorious 0.000015% energy reducation! Oh hell, that only works if all 2 billion people in the western world do that. Hmm, my money says the reports for 2007 will say less then 10% of the population in the western world does it. Brilliant, the actual effect of the whole deal is 0.0000015%. A temperature change here of about 0.00003 degrees.

But hey, if this hypocrasy gets me a free show I'm all for it! :D

Hey guys, lets keep on topic. :wink: Thank you :D

I wonder - playing Devil's Advocate here - how many trees were chopped down to make the guitars we all own? And how many trees were chopped down to publicise the Live Earth concert? Column inches - pamphlets - posters......

Trees are a renewable resource, however - but I wonder how many acres of rainforest have been cleared to provide grazing pasture for the cows slaughtered by the likes of Mac's and Burger King? And how much has been replanted? Think about that one next time you're scoffing a big Mac or a Whopper....I'll do my bit by boycotting them completely, like I have done for a couple of years.

:D :D :D

Vic

Vic, I've got one guitar that is not made of wood (actually I think the bracing is wood) its a Martin LXME. Considering its size it sounds pretty good, I bet the full size X's sound pretty good too. Someday technology will design a guitar that made of some polymer that sounds as good as wood, costs the same or less and musicians will still buy the wooden ones.

Eric

Someday technology will design a guitar that made of some polymer that sounds as good as wood, costs the same or less and musicians will still buy the wooden ones.

Eric

i know i will :wink:

Someday technology will design a guitar that made of some polymer that sounds as good as wood, costs the same or less and musicians will still buy the wooden ones.

Already happens. Most stores dont even want to sell such guitars, even though they get favourable reviews in magazines.

Someone mentioned something about fluorescent lighting: I have heard rumours from people that they actually contain materials that are hazardous to the environment. It's only a rumour though, so if anyone knows for sure that would be helpful.

not just hazardous the the environment...

http://www.aim.org/special_report/5587_0_8_0_C/

NBC Promotes Toxic Chinese Light Bulbs

"NPR reported, “Some states, cities and counties have outlawed putting CFL bulbs in the trash, but in most states the practice is legal.” It added that “Even cities that have curbside recycling won't take the bulbs. So people have to take them to a hazardous-waste collection day or a special facility.”

If they are put into the trash and then a landfill, the released mercury could be released into the ground and into the groundwater. If the bulbs break in people's trash when they throw them away, or in people's homes or offices before they have even been used, people are exposed to the toxic threat.

Bio Hazard

According to the EPA website, an individual is exposed to elemental mercury “when elemental mercury is spilled or products that contain elemental mercury break and expose mercury to the air.” Exposure to mercury can lead to the following symptoms: “tremors; emotional changes (e.g., mood swings, irritability, nervousness, excessive shyness); insomnia; neuromuscular changes (such as weakness, muscle atrophy, twitching); headaches; disturbances in sensations; changes in nerve responses; performance deficits on tests of cognitive function. At higher exposures there may be kidney effects, respiratory failure and death.”

The Washington Times reported on May 3, 2007, that it cost one Maine family $2,004.28 to clean up the toxic mess from just one broken CFL, and that it would “take 16,667 cubic meters of soil to ‘safely' contain all the mercury in a single CFL.” But, for those who don't want to pay to have the toxic mess cleaned up, the Times article explained the procedures for cleaning up the mess from a broken CFL, according to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The procedure is provided on the Maine DEP's Web page entitled, “What if I accidentally break a fluorescent bulb in my home?”

Doesn't regular fluorescent bulbs contain mercury? Those have been around for years (and years) and I haven't heard anybody whine about it. Not that you all are whining about anything...

ever try to screw one of those tubes into your home table lamp?
The "C" is for compact. (screw in type for those of you who want to skip reading the article)
CFLs have only been around for a short time and are engineered to replace your standard light bulbs.

Actually the tubes have been disscussed as a hazard, but with the industry being as powerful as it is you won't hear about it in the mainstream media, much as you didn't hear about the CFLs being nasty either.
but i agree, the flourescent type bulbs have been around for a long time, the heck with the environment, and public health.

i learned a lot from that article also, so i looked deeper and checked the EPA site for info and found this,
http://www.epa.gov/oar/mercuryrule/basic.htm#global

"On March 15, 2005, EPA issued the first-ever federal rule to permanently cap and reduce mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. This rule makes the United States the first country in the world to regulate mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants." (so much for Kyoto eh?)

"The Clean Air Mercury Rule will build on EPA's Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) to significantly reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants -- the largest remaining sources of mercury emissions in the country. When fully implemented, these rules will reduce utility emissions of mercury from 48 tons a year to 15 tons, a reduction of nearly 70 percent."

"Mercury emitted from coal-fired power plants comes from mercury in coal, which is released when the coal is burned. While coal-fired power plants are the largest remaining source of human-generated mercury emissions in the United States, they contribute very little to the global mercury pool. Recent estimates of annual total global mercury emissions from all sources -- both natural and human-generated -- range from roughly 4,400 to 7,500 tons per year. Human-caused U.S. mercury emissions are estimated to account for roughly 3 percent of the global total, and U.S. coal-fired power plants are estimated to account for only about 1 percent."

i had a feeling that the sudden push to buy these bulbs lately was a bit suspect when my personal findings in my own little case study were that they were,
1. very expensive
2. only lasted a fraction of the advertised lifespan.

To be fair to the bulb pushers the package had info on it so that you could send the faulty bulb(s) somewhere (on your own dime) and get a replacement or a refund (don't remember which)
but that would have cost me a fortune comparatively speaking in time and shipping as all but 1 in a pack of 10 has long since burnt out or stopped working many years short of the advertised lifespan.

i am not seeing the larger packs on the shelves at my local Sam's' Club, but here is what the package looked like

I barely flipped through this Live Earth thing but I did manage to see Cat Stevens and he sounded great. Nice to hear the old songs and him sounding so good. He didn't look crazy or anything. I saw Alicia Keyes for a moment, sounded like she was trying too hard and she looked like a prosti . In all I didn't get a good vibe from the whole thing though, singers and such there to promote themselves and the music didn't sound so good on average. Police didn't know their own songs, bad rappers crashing in, terrible stuff. But the Cat man, he was good.

Who cares about global warming.

I liked watching Shakira do her thing!!!! :wink:

I did my bit to offset the carbon footprint created by this overindulgent display of hypocrisy by not watching.

That's the planet saved. Well done everyone. :roll:

I don't need to be preached to by an aging drag queen whose carbon emissions are equal to those of a small country. I'm doing my bit. Is she? I doubt it very much. :twisted:

Sorry. Rant over. :wink:

8)

I did my bit to offset the carbon footprint created by this overindulgent display of hypocrisy by not watching.

That's the planet saved. Well done everyone. :roll:

I don't need to be preached to by an aging drag queen whose carbon emissions are equal to those of a small country. I'm doing my bit. Is she? I doubt it very much. :twisted:

Sorry. Rant over. :wink:

8)

+1 although i confess to catching a bit of the pumpkins and genesis,