the ad company Ogilvy is indeed an interesting point, shri.
but anyway, do you really believe that 3 minutes switching off the lights would make such a big difference in comparison to the energy consumption of all aircons in hkg switched off for 3 minutes?
aircons are the real energy-wasters and there are studies around that e.g. in japan several whole power plants would not be needed any more, if the average aircon temperature would just be set down by a few degrees. just imagine how much it would help to have a few power plants less, which are usually burning coal in this region.
there was even a campaign of the government around a year ago to dress down and to set the aircons to a higher temperature, but somehow i believe that not much has changed since then, as most people are unfortunately too selfish in having (freezing) temperatures as a 'comfortable' living/working environment. freezing temperatures are not healthy, but in contrast to that you need light for your eyes.
but tv campaings are not enough. if you really want the people to change, then the government has to impose an energy tax, increasing the electricity costs so that companies and private housholds alike realize the additional costs they have to pay for excessive costs of aircon usage. currently the electricity in hkg is simply too cheap to create enough motivation for the people to change.
in germany for example they even teach the people to completely switch off your TV etc. and not keep it on standby at night and when you are out to save even more energy. this is simply because you can seriously save a considerable amount of hard-earned money because the energy prices are so high there. new electrical appliances have better standby energy consumption though, but it shows you how energy tax can create awareness.
the drawback would be of course that it would have got a negative effect on the economy like higher costs for companies, supporting higher inflation of prices, curbing consumer confidence. so please don't think that i am an ultra-left greenpeace activist. BUT if the companies and private households would start to save energy by using the aircons more considerate, then it might be able to reduce the mentioned negative effects.
money is quite important here and it still looks like that it's more important than clean air, due to the common lack of seeing enough future consequences like their own children getting asthma and every other kind of allergy you can imagine caused by air pollution. it's simply too far away for most people here to imagine. so if you make them pay more money, then you may get them again on their selfishness and they need to decide whether to pay more or to save energy.
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one idea: i don't like the government suggestion of setting up a 5% sales tax in hkg. i think it would have got a negative effect on the hkg economy even though it is on a rising path currently. so if the government really needs more money, why don't they implement an energy tax by 2007 and at least postpone the introduction of the sales tax by 1 year or even more (as a considerable energy tax can not completely outweigh a sales tax by volume)? i would rather pay 10% energy tax on my electricity bill (even after electricity savings) than 5% sales tax on everything i buy. time for a petition signed by all geoexpat members!
to make it like Ogilvy we would need possible catch phrases for posters like: "10 years after the re-unification - time to change to a modern, energy-efficient hkg!". get some sponsors for posters etc. and geoexpat could then even benefit from the free advertising on them
or do you think it's a stupid idea as i was maybe day-dreaming too much on this rainy sunday?
well, it might just be that i prefer day-dreaming in comparison to a nightmare if i should have children with severe health problems somewhen in future...
