Hard to do this when the 360 raises the power bill each month. That thing is a hog.

Does the PS3 in standby mode draw any power?

I don't think my TV even has an off button. To really turn it off you'd have to unplug it, and that's a LOT of effort.

@kylo4: Yeah it'll draw power, if there's an LED shining then it's drawing power, however small.

I make an effort to turn my consoles and TV off, though my PS3 is currently in standby mode as I've been trying out remote play, but I have to admit my PC never gets turned off, my internet isn't the quickest so it's on 24/7 downloading this, that and the obligatory other

You should always turn your LCD off, lest you accidentally like having burnt pixels.

I agree on the 360 power hog, it doesn't help that most of my playtime is during off peak hours; therefore adding useless fees.

As ghetto as it is, I still have a clap-on bedside lamp. Eat it if you find it funny, its the staple of home shopping network product.

I hate that my LCD HDTV's dont have an off position.. just standby. I wouldnt mind if it ment instant power on, but even coming back from standby it takes about 10 seconds to get a picture.

I dont think a change in our game-behaviour will have an impact on the earth..
If they just stop chopping trees.
We can leave my downloads on all night..

If we learned anything from Hokuto no Ken, Violence Jack and Mad Max, its that there can still be fun in a post apocalyptic world. A different kind of fun.

I already turn my 360 off before I sleep or when I leave home. For other reasons though. I'm afraid it'll burn my house down.

@Dannon: Same with me, the computer seems to be on for 15 hours at a time lately. The monitor shuts off after 20 minutes though.

If it offsets it at all the house has fluorescent lights everywhere and we don't use the air conditioning that much, preferring to leave the windows open.

I've made a habit of turning off everything before I go to sleep in the last couple years. Although to be honest, I was thinking about the electrical bill... not the environment.

I keep all my home theater electronics on one main surge protector that is switched off when not in use.

@kylo4: I have the monitor turn off too, I hate screensavers and powering off in obviously more economical therefore I'm doing something to save the environment plus it's a laptop that I have running which takes up less power than a full PC.....I think, I may need to look into that

When I'm not watching my TV, it's off. When I'm not playing my PS2, Wii or 360 ... they're off. Same goes for my home stereo (and subwoofer), guitar/bass amplifiers, rack effects, pedal effects, synths & keyboards, interfaces and control surfaces. And every night I usually turn off my PC, Macbook Pro and external hard drives.

I try and save as much power as possible. Feels damn good.

Seems like I'm really bad at all this caring for the environment stuff... Then again, I don't own a car and I cycle to work so I think that offsets the fact that most of the electronics in my sitting room (of which we have 2 of most stuff because I moved in with a mate and we refused to only have one TV :p) is permanently on standby and from the hours of 5:30 till about 3am are usually turned on. But like I said: I cycle to work.

Power strips are handy for this FYI; just flick the switch and all connected consoles go dark.

I'm really bad for this. I do turn my TV and 360 off when I don't use them, but my PC is *always* on.My monitor goes to standby, but that's it. Shameful, seeing as how I actually am a nature-lover. (read: tree-hugging hippie :p)

Too bad that man-made global warming is a myth and that any scientific report demonstrating so is silenced and refused publication. Global warming is politics, not science. In fact, recent evidence suggest that high CO2 levels are desirable to combat a routine global cooling (as seen in the mid 2nd millenium AD/BCE). I'll leave my PS3 on all night as a heater, thanks. ;)

@Donutta: Get ready to get tarred and feathered. Most people have accepted man-made global warming as a fact and think that if anyone disagrees they are insane. Most will even try to tell you there's not even a debate anymore. Any scientist you bring up who disagrees with GW being man-made will be said to have been bought out by the crazy far right. Not saying I disagree with you, but just preparing you for what's coming.

@I_Hate_This_Place: Haha, yeah I'm prepared. I love debating it with people, actually. We have people on the streets trying to sign you up for Greenpeace and I often ask them really obnoxious questions like what is the minimun temperature of the ocean floor. (It's 4 degrees C, due to the pressure). When they can't answer, I ask them if they still want to debate global warming with me. ;)

I always feel my best evidence comes from Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore who says: "In its essence, eco-extremism rejects virtually everything about modern life. We are told that nothing short of returning to primitive tribal society can save the earth from ecological collapse. No more cities, no more airplanes, no more polyester suits. It is a naive vision of a return to the Garden of Eden."

I'm not saying we should shit in our own nest. I'm just saying it's pretty naive to think that turning off your LCD screen is suddenly going to solve a natural cycle that has been going on for longer than Homo Homo Sapiens have populated the planet.

That said... *puts on Kevlar suit*

@I_Hate_This_Place: Haha, oh yeah, I can imagine. I'm always happy to debate it though. When people try to sign me up for Greenpeace on the street, I often ask them what the minimun temperature of the ocean floor is. (It's 4 degrees C due to pressure.) When they can't answer, I ask them if they still want to debate global warming.

My favourite quote comes from Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore: "In its essence, eco-extremism rejects virtually everything about modern life. We are told that nothing short of returning to primitive tribal society can save the earth from ecological collapse. No more cities, no more airplanes, no more polyester suits. It is a naive vision of a return to the Garden of Eden."

That said... *puts on Kevlar suit*

In my opinion, the gamecommunity should put more pressure on the game-industry to make recycle-friendly gameconsoles and to try out new business models. By downloading games you do not only save the material to make dvds and boxes but also the fuel needed to distribute.

@Donutta: Lol. I also notice that anyone who disagrees with man-made GW is labeled as someone who doesn't like the environment, which is just not true. I have met very few people who do not care about the environment at all. They just think that caring for the environment and global warming have nothing to do with each other.

There's still a scientific debate going on, but the important word here is "scientific". I.e. not loudmouth internet forums, sensationalist media or political propaganda-making.

Furthermore, I find it tragically amusing that some people are so ready to believe one sort of bias against critics, but have trouble imagining that immensely rich and powerful industries with vested interests in keeping the status quo can do anything to cover up proof of AGW.

Such are the internets, I guess.

@HertzaHaeon: I think you're confusing issues here. Global warming is fact. It's happened before and it'll happen again. Most people don't realise that during Earth's history there was NO ice on the planet. So much for the melting ice caps. I don't think you'll find a scientist that says global warming doesn't occur. What you'll find is scientists that say it happens no matter what, and turning off your lights at night isn't going to stop it.

Although, I find it ironic that no one has realised that Mr I-serve-an-endangered-species-at-my-daughter's party Gore is invested in a lot of companies that will make money from "reduction" of climate change.

Not everyone on an Internet forum is a moron that's education came from sending four coupons and a proof of purchase off to Kellogs. ;)

I will spend Vladimir Lenin day ... err I mean Earth Day driving to and from work and probably playing my Wii this afternoon. ;)

I turn my PC to standby mode since there's something weird going on with it. Oh well, just another month or so till my tax check comes in and I will get a new PC. ;)

And I switched to an LCD HDTV to uhh draw less current when I game ... or something. Yeah, let's go with that.

Whether man made global warming is fact or not- can you not see the wisdom in conserving finite resources though economical usage?

Since installing a solar hot water system, switching to energy efficient products and turning off stand-by my electricity bill is down from $400 to $75 per quarter.

It's not hard, unless you are mentally uncapable off flicking a switch.

@Donutta: The point isn't that global warming has never happened before, the point is that it's never happened so much, so fast. The point is the way it dovetails with increases in CO2 in the past 100 years, and especially since 1970. And the point is that the method by which CO2 and other gases trap heat is well known.

Oh, and Gore was almost certainly not making money off of green companies 20 years ago, when he first started talking about this.

@erlik: But he is now. He's gotten huge funding and the carbon-offset industry is already in the billions.

@I_Hate_This_Place: I'm sure that was his master plan.

Care about the environment? Course you do.

No, I hate the enviroment with a passion...

Anyway we have to admit there are like 30 millon species on this planet, and that is a system. A system that everywhere is in decadency.. dying. As we can't live withouth it, we are dyiing to. We as in.. the humanity.

.., and while some are a little fiddly (like upgrading to "green" components), others you should be able to manage, including setting your PC to sleep mode more often and actually turning your console and TV off, instead of leaving them on standby.

Or NOT upgrading to Vista, that is a new OS that need much more hardware to run smooth, so you have to buy new components.

You can buy more components, like RAM, because is good for your computing. But the corporations make it hard to buy green components, and even these that do provide green components are not very green to me.

@erlik: A Phantom Menace? ;)

My biggest beef with global warming is that the "experts" (read: climatologists) don't look at Earth's history; they just look at a small portion of it. 4.5 billion years and two massive extinction events and the capitalist, industrial society is the one to be the undoing of Mother Earth?

Meh, gaming. I feel like playing that old Captain Planet game on the Amiga. That was cool.

@Donutta: riiight so since the world is in constant change we might as well carry on living in this way without any regard for our surroundings?

@Donutta: I was going to weigh in on this debate, but since I seem to have a doppleganger here, I'll simply say: I agree with you 100%, for entirely the same reasons. I bring up the same points as you in global warming debates, but so many people refuse to listen to reason instead of whatever the media has spoon-fed them. As I_Hate_This_Place said, a lot of people are convinced there isn't even a debate anymore.

Anyway, you said pretty much everything I would have said, so we're in total agreement. Thanks for preventing me from getting involved in the debate directly. ;)

theres more than just global warming to worry about anyway here - in the process of generating power we cause damage to all kinds of things regardless of what method is used (except maybe solar!). Not allowing our power consumption to spiral any further will mean living with what we have and hopefully not causing any more damage than necessary to the air, earth and water...my main concern being that wildlife that dwell within these would suffer.

@elronathon: As I said, I'm not for shitting in our own nest. You won't see me throwing my styrofoam contain right out the side (and wiping my mouth with the American flag). What I'm saying is that it's naive to think that the industrial revolution has brought upon disaster to the planet. Read Greenspirit.com for a couple of hours and realise how many greenies are actually ex-Marxists looking for a new cause since the Berlin wall fell. It's no surprise that the industrial revolution is blamed for the end of the world as we know it.

Bottom line is that global warming and global cooling happen with or without humans, and turning off your console at night isn't going to do shit except maybe reduce your power bill.

@elronathon: Here's a perfect example of what I_Hate_This_Place said: someone assuming that because Donutta disagrees with GW theory, he somehow thinks we should throw caution to the wind. That is not what he is saying. Protecting the environment is important, but the human impact on the state of the global climate isn't as detrimental as the media makes it out to be.

For example, there was an article on CNN about a massive ice shelf in Antarctica that is breaking away from the rest of the continent due to global warming. Yes, that is likely true. However, the "experts" then claimed that because of global warming, the entire ecosystem of Antarctica was in danger. Their reasoning behind this was based on the fact that krill populations in Antarctica had seen a decline in recent years. They attributed this decline to global warming.

Krill are one of the bottom-of-the-food-chain species, and their disappearance WOULD have a HUGE effect on the ecosystem there. However, the "experts" claimed that the marginal rise in average ocean temperature was the cause of the krill population decline. They seemed to forget the fact that krill exist in every ocean on Earth, so temperature has jack shit to do with it. But hey, that doesn't matter, as long as they can spin it to those who don't know any better.

As others have said before, there have been times when Earth had no ice anywhere. The reason we have glaciers now is because we are still in an ice age (albeit at the end of one). Even if the glaciers melt, the cycle of life will continue. It's not as if life is going to grind to a halt because it's a few degrees warmer.

@Donutta: Kudos for the Denis Leary quotes. ;)

@Donutta: @Captain Impulse: both pretty fair points though donutta - don't get too conspiracy theory on us there :)

Nevermind helping people or making anyone's life better. Go through meaningless rituals for the "benefit" of the Earth -- which doesn't even notice because it's just a big wet rock anyway.

If you sacrifice enough of the things people value, if you hurt enough people and hold them back from health and prosperity, you get to go to environmental heaven. There will be a virgin forest with 72 trees there to greet you.

@marleycat: Whether man made global warming is fact or not- can you not see the wisdom in conserving finite resources though economical usage?

I'm all for conservation, waste not want not and all that, but what I do not like is when people try to substitute conservation for growth. Economies grow and conservation will only get you so far.

Would I buy a car that costs me pennies a day to run? Of course! The Chevy Volt is looking pretty interesting (though not at its projected $48K price tag) I'd be all for us using half the power we do now as that means costs go down. Efficiency is great and a necessity for growth, but it does not induce growth on its own.

@Donutta: I'm well aware of what global warming is. "AGW" stands for "anthropogenic global warming", i.e. global warming caused by humans. There is very strong proof of this, although naturally not absolute proof.

Turning your lights off or switching to low energy lights can make a difference. The ozone hole was defeated one fridge at a time (somewhat simplified). But if you imply that such changes pale in comparison to big emitters, I completely agree. They don't make switching lights meaningless, however.

I don't see any problem at all that people, including Al Gore, are making money off going green. In fact, profitable green tech and organization is likely what will stop the worst effects of AGW.

@Donutta: Climatologists do indeed look at earth's history. In fact, they base their science partly on data going back hundreds of millions of years. Your comment is gravely misinformed and your "beef" with AGW is based on ignorance.

@HertzaHaeon: Hundreds of millions of years still equates to a fraction of Earth's history. Less than a quarter, in fact.

As I said in my first post, there is no doubting that global warming is fact. AGW, on the other hand, is not; especially given as that any paper to say otherwise is denied publication. I once met a very nice man who sold his science to multiple companies -- including "green" ones -- worldwide. This science, however, was not published because it disagreed with the current hive mind on global warming. As I said, politics, not science.

It's easy to claim that my stance is based on ignorance (despite the fact that I spend countless hours of procrastination exploring both sides of the debate) because ad hominem attacks make it easier to prove a point. Shall we start a links war? I'm confident in my evidence. ;)

Being 1:30 a.m. here, I'm off to bed now. I just wanted to say that I enjoyed this debate and I look forward to reading the flames in the morning. ;)

Whether or not pollution is causing damage on a global scale, its still causing a lot of damage to the planet. Smog has been proven to raise the temp in cities, and people in areas downwind from Chinese factories sometimes have to wear masks or risk getting sick.

The only thing is, no matter how much people may say to conserve, the fact of the matter is the damage we do to the environment will still increase. All conservation will do is slow it down. What we need to do is invest in technology that can reverse the damage.
For instance, if the ozone layer is getting thinner, make some more. Ozone is made naturally when UV rays from the sun separate a pair of oxygen molecules. Occasionally when they go to rejoin, you'll get a trio instead of a pair. That's ozone. So get a big 'ole container of O2, and bomb it with UV, and release it.

I'll admit I'm not much on conservation, but there are a couple of things that are easy for me that I should do.

Lastly, this looks pretty interesting.

Oops, problem with the link. Let's try this again.

Sorry, link didn't work.

G