Do you think having Christmas light displays outside your home is bad for the environment?
In Australia last March we had what was known as earth hour, an hour where everyone was encouraged to turn off their lights for an hour in order to help the environment. My busybody neighbour got really into this and harassed everyone in our neighbourhood in the week leading up to earth hour, to make sure that we would all participate. In fact, at the time when earth hour began, she even knocked on our door to remind us that earth hour was about to begin and we had promised to participate. Now Christmas is almost here and this same neighbour has a massive display of christmas lights outside her home – including giant light up candy canes and snow men. The house is covered in tiny lights. She keeps them on most of the night. I think this is very hypocritical of her. How do we approach her and remind her of the commitment she made to looking after the environment without sounding like we are trying to ruin Christmas?
This Earth hour thing. Is it a yearly affair or only last year. It would be a nice but sarcastic way to remind her if she is intending to do the earth hour thing this year too. Like,’ Wow, what lovely decorations you have put on this year! By the way We were just wondering if we will be doing the Earth Hour this year too, as you made an impact on us last year! Something like that may just get the message across to her.
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Tell her if she cares that much about the environment then she should sell her lights and donate the money, and donate the money she will have saved on her huge electricity bill.
Although to me she just sounds like an irritating, interfering, busy body.
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I was thinking the same thing this year… i think huge christmas light displays will become a thing of the past..so much electricity is wasted, however pretty the lights may be.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the future, I have decided that when I get my own home, I will buy a real Christmas tree and not put lights on my tree/ house. For a festive look, I may light tea light candles for a few house each night in the lead up to Christmas.
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I’ve never thought about this, but you bring up an interesting point . . . chances are, she just really has the Christmas spirit, and hasn’t even thought about how bad it looks.
You should go to her, make sure you’re calm, and nicely explain to her that she’s not keeping up with her commitment. She will probably be embarassed, maybe even a little defensive, but assure her that you know it was an honest mistake. Then tell her that probably the best solution would be to have a small display that you turn off except when it gets dark, and then turn it off before you go to bed. Or skip the lights altogether.
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while it is true that big light displays create big electricity demands and thus increase the carbon footprint, if her lights are all LEDs then they use about as much power as a hair dryer.
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It appears to me you have two questions:
XMAS LIGHT DISPLAY — It takes energy and resources to manufacture the lights and to develop the electricity. Do we need it — not like oxygen but we all "need" happiness and joy. Do we need…. mirrors, 200 music CDs ? Do we need to go on vacation ? Is the trade off worth the damage to our environment –I say yes we need it and it is less damaging to the environment than say, commuting alone.
YOUR NEIGHBOR — Smile at her display, she obviously needs JOY and something to do with electricity —year around.
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This Earth hour thing. Is it a yearly affair or only last year. It would be a nice but sarcastic way to remind her if she is intending to do the earth hour thing this year too. Like,’ Wow, what lovely decorations you have put on this year! By the way We were just wondering if we will be doing the Earth Hour this year too, as you made an impact on us last year! Something like that may just get the message across to her.
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No I don’t see anything wrong with it as long as people don’t get crazy and put up 50,000 lights to encourage others to drive by to look. There are people who do this! I believe that energy conservation should be encouraged, for many reasons, but you shouldn’t be feeling guilty everytime you turn on a light.
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All the answers you have here are excellent. One thing I would add. To your neighbour you could say, casually, all the power used by your lights would keep an operating theatre going through an emergency. Switching them off at night could well make the difference of life or death to someone.
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