2008 Teen Choice Awards
"It's about Green Eco Choices, Solar
Energy, And Recycling"
Last night, my teen daughter told us
she wanted to watch the Teen Choice Awards. She is a crazy fan of the
Jonas Brothers, and my daughter wouldn’t miss another chance to see
them. My whole family ended up watching the awards.
After Miley Cyrus’s opening song, two
famous young singers, Jesse McCartney and Katharine McPhee , came
forward to the stage to present an award for (and I’m quoting exactly
what they said): Jesse McCartney said “Not only Teen Choice Awards, but
it’s also the Green Choice Awards. It’s all about Eco”. Katharine McPhee
said, “That’s right. We are talking Solar Energy, soy beans, and
Recycling”.
I couldn’t believe my ears! The Academy
Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, Teen Choice awards are all about fame,
looks, beauty, being cool, having lots of money, and other “nice things
of life.” These two “kids” were talking about green choices, recycling,
and solar energy.
Who ever wrote the script for Jesse and
Katherine is either a genius environmental activist or a green nut
hippie. If McCartney and McPhee talked about solar energy and choosing
to be green on their own, in front of all those people, knowing that
millions of kids (and adults) were watching them live on TV, and many
more were going to watch them on YouTube and other sites, I just have
to say, they are now on my list of most respectable people in this
country!!!
Being environmentally conscious and
supporting solar energy were subjects usually related to hippies or
“crazy” people. Listening to such statements in and event like the Teen
Choice Awards and from such famous people, is encouraging and
refreshing. What a profound message for teens!
The Teen Choice Awards promoted and in a
way endorsed to be environmentally and ecologically conscious, or
choose "Green", Solar Power, and Recycling. How can teens implement
this? What can we do to show kids how to take green choices? What
examples can we provide that will motivate them to use Renewable
Energy, like Solar Energy?
Here are some examples:
-
Using rechargeable batteries
-
Charging batteries
with solar power
-
Charging/recharging iPods and
cell phones with solar energy
87% of
teens who own an MP3 player own some type of iPod
With more
than 150 million iPods sold until September 2007. About 22 millions sold in fist quarter
of 2008, and about 11 million in the second quarter of 2008, in spite of the bad economy.
We can safely say that as September 2008, about 200 million iPods have
been sold.
Can you imagine
how much energy can
be saved charging iPods and cells from Solar Energy?
Some quick
numbers will give us a good idea. It takes about 4 watts per hour
to charge an iPod, in average. iPhones and iPod video require
more power. If ALL iPods sold were charged by solar energy,
this much energy will be saved:
200 million times 4W/h, equals 800
million W/h, or 800,000 KW/h.
Now take
your electricity bill, and find out how much power your house consumes
in a month. I looked at mine, and found that we use between 14,000 KW/h
to 20,000 KW/h, and we do not waste that much power.
Lets
suppose that the American home average uses about 20,000KW/h:
800,000
KW/h divided 20,000 KW/h, equals 40!!! It means that with energy saved
by charging ALL iPods sold with solar energy,
40 houses in the US can by powered FREE for a
MONTH!!!
Statistics
show that about 50% of iPod owners are teenagers. If the message from
the Teen Choice Awards is well understood to just some of them, we
can start using more and more energy from the sun, and contribute to
less pollution.
I will be posting soon, this related, more expanded
article:
How
Much Energy Can Be Save By Using Solar Energy? |
