Australia nuttiness...TV ads cause CARBON EMISSION!

[Manedwolf]

Have they totally lost it?

AUSTRALIAN television advertising is producing as much as 57 tonnes of carbon dioxide per hour, and thirty second ad breaks are among the worst offenders, according to audit figures from pitch consultants TrinityP3.
Carbon emissions are particularly strong during high-rating programs such as the final episodes of the Ten Networks Biggest Loser, which produced 2135kgs per 30 second ad, So You Think You Can Dance at 2061kg for every 30 seconds, closely followed by the Seven News 6pm news at 1689kg and Border Security at 1802kg.

TrinityP3 managing director Darren Woolley said emissions are calculated by measuring a broadcasters power consumption and that of a consumer watching an ad on television in their home, B&T Magazine reports.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24062638-29277,00.html

If this keeps up, the carbon-ites will burst into tears if you show them a piece of charcoal. Maybe that'd be good repellent? "LOOK! CARBON! EEEEEEVIL!"

[AZRedhawk44]

How can you blame the advertisers?

It's the same X,XXX watts to transmit the signal regardless of TV programming or commercial time, and doesn't change unless more or less people are watching.  And it then becomes a function of personal electricity consumption.  Want to generate less carbon?  Turn off the damned TV and do something.

It has nothing to do with the advertisers though.  If no-one watched TV (the biggest component of the carbon cycle that worries them so much), they wouldn't advertise.

So, greenies:  stop watching TV.  If American Idol got 500K less viewers, that would be about 100 megawatt-hours saved on the power grid (at 200watts per TV, a low number).

[JonnyB]

I presume it's due to people getting up during commercial breaks to open the fridge, make popcorn, use the loo. Stuff like that that *does* use energy.

Just run the shows back-to-back with no adverts. That'll stop it. Oh. Wait. The stations would go broke. Hmmm.... That's OK, too.

jb