Candle In The Wind

It's not enough that The Vatican has enlisted on the side of carbon neutrality in the Climate Wars. The Jerusalem Post reports :

" a campaign that has spread like wildfire across the Internet... encouraging Jews around the world to light at least one less candle this Hanukka to help the environment.

"The founders of the Green Hanukkia campaign found that every candle that burns completely produces 15 grams of carbon dioxide. If an estimated one million Israeli households light for eight days, they said, it would do significant damage to the atmosphere.

Tom Wegner,  who heads the public relations firm Update Marketing Media, spread the campaign via mass e-mails "To tell a child on the eighth day that we are not lighting the last candle as a sacrifice for the environment ... will prevent the release of a huge amount of carbon dioxide."

While one rabbi "warned that the campaign would take away from the light of Torah that each and every candle symbolizes" another "called the environmentalists "crazy people...they should encourage people to light one less cigarette instead,"

Either seems unlikely  to threaten an Ice Age. With  3.3  million Jewish households globally, the 26 million candle savings could translate into a maximum of ~ 400 tons of CO2, while owing to the low carbon content of tobacco relative to paraffin candles, the cigarette alternative would  reduce emissions by at most 16.

However, the Lord moveth in mysterious ways his carbon footprint to reduce. In an apparent demonstration of Intelligent Design,  both carbon dioxide sources are completely offset by  the Sabbatarian   nation's  statistically  conspicuous drop in fossil fuel  consumption on its Biblical day off.

Meanwhile back in Bethlehem,  though 'tis the season for anti-smoking activists to complain about cathedrals full of second-hand Frankincense and Myrrh, traditional church candles have largely escaped Green ire.  Beeswax is, after all, a biofuel.

That does not get Aloes off the hook.  Incense from the wild Aqullaria tree is an ecumenical object of desire, and unsustainable Christan, Muslim, Buddhist and Shinto demand has seen it banned in 169 countries by the CITES Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Lord knows what will be next-- Balm of Gilead, Goper Wood?  Or will the neoGrinches go gunning for bigger game, like partridge-bearing pear trees and flaming plum puddings?

I've helped light two dozen tapers on a bona fide London Christmas tree whose balsamic glow expanded as its needles warmed --the tapers probably totaled a couple of hundred watts. I suppose a lump of coal in a Christmas stocking may reasonably approximate the carbon footprint of a single Chanukah candle, but  there are other holidays to consider. Igniting tar barrels on Guy Fawkes Day may not long survive, and  If Greens set their sights on The Great Pumpkin, and mandate renewable jack-O'lantern lights, kids  may end up foraging for candy on All Tallows Eve.

These are waters deep as Galliee , and I think I'll drop mathematics in favor of eggnog until somebody can tell me how many candlepower equal  a Yule log, and how many cords add up to a pillar of fire? 

Comments

[Bente Lilja Bye]

Hilarious! As a person with some insight in physics - theoretical astrophysics to be precise - I am wondering who did the energy calculations of all these campaigns?

Living in Norway has made me used to lots of light during the dark hours (light pollution I call it as it makes it harder to see the stars). One of the first differences I noticed between Norway and other countries, like France, was the fact that there were no lights on in the villages at night. Completely dark it was. That was back in the 80ies. Now that has all changed. They are polluted with night light as well now.

Still, I wonder if all this light saving is good for anything but our morale and climate/energy awareness.

Interesting to see that religious behavior is about to change due to global warming!

[joe]

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One of the first differences I noticed between Norway and other countries, like France, was the fact that there were no lights on in the villages at night.

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