Do they know it’s Christmas? Nasa satellite data now enables scientists to see signs of high electricity consumption from space. With homes, gardens and cities festooned with lights this time of year, even the aliens know it’s Christmas.
By day, the Earth from space looks like a big blue marble of land, oceans and clouds. By night, it’s electric. Over the Christmas period, think disco ball, for parts of it at least.
We know it’s Christmas all right. It’s climate change we can’t seem to grasp. Ireland uses a variety of sources for our electricity production, including gas, coal, peat and oil. Making and using these types of electricity harms the environment. Air pollution, water pollution and climate change from emissions are some of the harms. Being more mindful of how we use electricity can help.
Lighting up our homes over Christmas has always been about signalling joy and festiveness. Brightly lit Christmas trees, electric candles, plug-in garden ornaments and shrubs stringed with lights – the more the merrier, right?
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Some homeowners erect spectacular displays. They’ve made headlines for covering their homes with 5,000 light bulbs, or saying they won’t be deterred by a €6,000 electricity bill. Some homeowner displays raise funds for charities.
Until 2021, energy company Energia ran Ireland’s Most Christmassy Home, a competition rewarding the most spectacularly lit up homes. In 2018, 80 households mounted light shows for up to seven weeks to compete for the title.
The competition seems to have disappeared since then. Maybe there was some recognition that excessive energy electricity consumption in a climate crisis is not something to be lauded?
Your festive lights won’t use that much electricity, of course, but a few simple adjustments this year can make Christmas a bit greener on the planet.
1. If you haven’t already done so, switch to LED lights. They use 70 per cent less energy than traditional bulbs. They last longer, too.
2. Does your Christmas tree need to be lit all day? You can be festive, but you don’t need to be festive at 2am. In daylight hours and when you are asleep, turn the lights off.
3. Reaching behind the sofa or other awkward places to switch off your lights, especially after a Baileys and a cheese board, can feel like a task. Why not invest in a few smart plugs? You can set them to a timer, and some even come with an app, so you can switch lights on and off remotely. A timer can reduce your energy usage and lower your bills.
4. If you have lights and ornaments in the garden, don’t run them all night. You could go from dusk to 11pm, for example. This will conserve energy, and it’s also better for wildlife. Heavy light pollution can disrupt their daily cycle of light and dark.
The tree, wreaths, holly, ivy and mistletoe – so many of our Christmas traditions – celebrate the natural world. Using less electricity this Christmas will show how much we actually value it.