LAHORE: Holding the carbon dioxide-emitting candles symbolically for illumination purposes or even having ‘romantic’ candle-lit dinners at restaurants on the week- end yesterday, the 2012 Earth Hour participants had surely ignored the vital fact in all probability that greenhouse gases have adversely affected the temperature of the earth more than anything else. The ‘Earth Hour’ participants across the globe had overlooked the reality that candles are actually made up Paraffin; a heavy Hydro-Carbon derived from a fossil fuel called crude oil that results in carbon dioxide emissions, which consequently increase the mercury levels on the planet. Without these greenhouse gases, earth’s surface would be on average about 33 C or 59 F cooler than what it now, according to a recent National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) report on the subject. As far as the contribution of each gas to the greenhouse effect is concerned, as students of science will surely know, carbon dioxide accounts for nine to 26 per cent, after water vapours (36 to 72 per cent) and more than Methane (4 to 9 per cent) and Ozone (3 to 7 per cent). According to the 2007 “Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,” prepared after the November 12 to 17, 2007 meeting of related experts in Valencia (Spain), “Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.” This above cited report had also viewed: “Eleven of the last 12 years (1995 to 2006) rank among the 12 warmest years in the instrumental record of global surface temperature since 1850.” The March 27, 2009 edition of a prestigious international online newspaper “Christian Science Monitor” had also raised this particular question about candle-burning in the following words: “Are the emissions from these candles worse
for the climate than simply leaving the lights on? After all, candles emit carbon dioxide too. Most candles are made of paraffin, a heavy hydrocarbon derived from crude oil. “Burning a paraffin candle for one hour will release about 10 grams of carbon dioxide.”
