Posted on 11/10/2007 8:23:32 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
'WE have turned out the lights in the studio," NBC's Bob Costas told viewers of Sunday's Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles game, "to kick off a week that will include more than 150 hours of programming designed to raise awareness about environmental issues." Discerning viewers with eyes keen enough to pierce the sanctimonious glare of Costas' candlelit silhouette may have noticed that the stadium's klieg lights still shone brightly. On a typical game day, a large football stadium burns about 65,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and 35,000 cubic feet of natural gas. The cars driving to the game spew about 200 metric tons of CO2 (and that assumes nobody's driving SUVs or RVs, which is like assuming tailgaters are eating only sushi). There's also the electricity used to broadcast the game and to watch it. But thank goodness Costas turned off the studio lights for a minute or two.
NBC's "Green Week" continued apace: Morbidly obese contestants on "The Biggest Loser" lugged piles of recyclable cans up ramps and into enormous collection bins. Of course, the cans were delivered to the stunt by diesel truck. So a lot of energy - and sweat! - that could have been used toward fermenting homebrew tofu (or whatever energy is supposed to be used for) was wasted on viewer schadenfreude.
The winners of the challenge each received a hybrid SUV. Alas, one of the winners didn't own a car to begin with, so the net result was one more car on the road and a little more CO2 in the air.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
It is amazing to me how much self-righteousness these guys can work up over stunts that at best do nothing positive, and quite often are a net negative for the environment.
NBC’s green campaign during the Sunday night football game has motivated me: I’m going to save energy by not watching NBC anymore.
Liberals ALWAYS need a self created CRISIS:
“You do know that the parent company of NBC is General Electric, right? You do know that for GE, green is first and foremost the color of money, right? As Tim Carney explains in vivid detail in his wonderful book, “The Big Ripoff,” GE’s “ecomagination” campaign is simultaneously a way to brand itself as a “progressive” company and a means of shaking the money tree - the most sustainable planting of them all - growing in Congress’ backyard.”
The best little gem of the entire week.....
The Rockefeller Christmas tree arrived this week. The hypocrites on the Today show lamented that “to save energy” the tree was cut by hand saws instead of chainsaws wasting all that horrific gasoline......but it was shipped into NY on a flatbed semi truck...
As long as they feel “good” about it is all that matters....
During the game Sunday night, we saw a lot of Blue!!!!!!
When the global company launched the ecomagination campaign, guess where it held the launch party? Its D.C. lobbying office, of course.
While sipping wine made at a solar-powered winery, GE chief Jeffrey Immelt proclaimed, “Industry cannot solve the problems of the world alone. We need to work in concert with government.”
Translation: The King Kong of the corporate world needs tax breaks, subsidies and favorable regulations to make green technology profitable. Indeed, GE has nearly cornered the market on the solar panels necessary to implement Kyoto-style reforms. Global-warming hysteria is good for its bottom line.
Liberals and environmentalists love to whine about special breaks for corporations, and they work themselves into paroxysms of paranoia about how big corporations propagandize against action on climate change. The reality is exactly the opposite: GE, DuPont, British Petroleum and countless other big corporations routinely propagandize in the other direction, largely to win governmental support they don’t need.
Think how much better the world would be if NBC and it’s affiliates turned off all the lights and went home.
Exposed. Makes me see red.
I recall Lightbulb Johnson (LBJ) turning out the lights at the Whitehouse....publicity stunt all the way.
Oh come on, the truck was going there anyway. /s
Green is the new red, according to political scientists.
If they halved the pay for NBC’s top execs they’d actually be doing something. Every item has an energy signature. The less a person spends, the smaller his carbon footprint. NBC tries to play us all for fools.
Of course their target audience is the “Sheeple”, democrats, greenies, left-wing lunatics, these are the “the sky is falling, the sky is falling” idiots who believe this Climate change cr@p!!
Good one .
This GREEN thing is just a fad , all bullsh*t .
NBC is run by PR Whores.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
No they haven't. "BP has been involved in solar power since 1973 and its subsidiary, BP Solar, is now one of the world's largest solar power companies..." from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photovoltaic cheers
Seems that GE, PARENT COMPANY of NBC, bought out some (all?) of ENRON's interests in "alternative energy sources" and carbon trading.
They're corporate whores and nothing more, trying to line their own pockets.
These people really think we are a bunch of twits who are drooling at the chance to be shown the way by the far more intelligent god-like beings at NBC.
makes me want to puke.
Jonah’s been a good writer for a long time.
I noticed last night on Deal or No Deal that the studio lights were as bright as always. Even had Kermit the Frog as a guest (he is green, right). The models on the show had green tips for the viewers like “take your own bags to the grocery store”. Oh Boy!
Perfect. BTW, where did the tree come from?
What year is that Time cover? I’d like to get some copys of it and hang them around
Isn’t GE making all those EXPENSIVE light bulbs that they are pushing for people to buy??? Reg. bulbs are like 50 cents...the new ones are $8.00.
I watch NBC for Chuck, Journeyman, The Office, Friday Night Lights, and Las Vegas. Chuck is the best show on any network right now, mostly because of Yvonne Strahovski:
Some guy's yard in Connecticut.
Good luck!
LH
~~ AGW ping~~
What a SHARP person you are!
Sheepishly I say, that escaped me ... .


Click on POGW graphic for full GW rundown
New!!: Dr. John Ray's
GREENIE WATCH
Ping me if you find one I've missed.
I wonder if the woodcutters used a 2-handled rip saw or a sabre saw?
Regulate the Internet? Uh-huh. This isn’t Communist China. How are they going to monitor every forum post, every email and every Podcast?
You forgot to mention (again in liberal whine) how W and the "evil neocons" are eroding our civil liberties due to the Patriot Act and horrible places like Gitmo.
Then again, irony would be lost on the DUmmies!
Maybe someone could splain something to me. I live in a TVA zone where all our electricity comes from a hydro-electric dam. So, if I shut off more lights, a barrel of water stays in the lake? Does LA and NYC get their power from burning unleaded or what? If saving electricity is so important, why is it $.06 per KWH?
Nothing stops anyone from setting up an offshore server and doing it that way, or doing email lists which aren’t out in the open. Technology will find a way.
You gotta love the story at the top center: “Why we can’t beat the Soviets.” Traitors always.
What’s even more ludicrous about the PR stunt is that it accomplished nothing tangible... zero, zip, zilch. Costas said it wasn’t going to change the world to turn off the studio lights for the evening, but it was a small part. In other words, if all of you “little people” will only sacrifice the world will be better.
Phooey.
Costas gave his message behind half a dozen candles, as though burning candles was morally superior to burning kilowatt hours. Guess which emits more CO2 (although that’s not really a problem, but that’s a whole separate issue), candles or a few lights?
Next, the entire fradulent exercise took place in the evening, when the power is base load. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but power generation involves base load and peaking power. Base load power comes from big nuke, coal, and hydro power sources. It cannot be easily ramped up and down. So, base load is set to cover the minimum demand over a 24 hour period. When a million air conditioners kick in during the afternoon, the extra demand is met with peaking plants.
Peaking plants are often combined cycle combustion turbines, which are relatively cheap to build and burn oil or gas. You can ramp them up and ramp them down.
Cut afternoon air conditioning use and combustion turbines can be throttled back. Cut evening lighting use in a TV studio and the base load plants still burn energy. For NBC to make a tangible difference, the lights would need to be permanently cut. An evening’s cut is not really any reduction because the base load plant is still pumping out kWhs.
Of course, this is not entirely accurate today. Because of NIMBY and environmental zealots, utilities find it difficult and risky to build base load generation capacity, so some have turned to turbines as part of their base load. The risk is less and if oil and gas jumps, the public utility commission lets them pass the premium along to the rate base, increasing regulated profits. Too bad if electricity prices are higher than necessary as long as the regulated utility profits are secure and the greenies don’t have to put up with more coal plants, nuke plants, and the snail darters are safe.
Again, someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but the point is NBC’s meaningless act was truly meaningless. It was ALL symbolism and ZERO substance, making it the perfect metaphor for the entire environmental movement.
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