Step aside Al Gore, Thursday is World Jump Day. The folks at World Jump Day show us how to save the world in 3 easy steps. Simply visit worldjumpday.org and:

1. Find out your jump time by entering your geographic location
2. Find a hard surface surface to jump on
3. JUMP!

They claim that the force of 600,000 people jumping up and down simultaneouly will alter the earths orbit by several degrees. This will in turn reduce global warming, extend daylight hours, and make our climate less volitile.

As a responsible purveyor of clever tips, I must give you both sides of this story. Not everyone is jumping on the World Jump Day bandwagon (pun intended, sorry). Contraworldjump.org has formed to counter the effects of world jump day. They worry that the drop in tempurature will increase our energy use, putting the world into a worse state than it is in now. They propose another jump exactly 12 hours later that would bump the earth safely back into its time-tested orbit.

Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy explains why both groups are quite silly. He debunks the notion that a few hundred thousand people jumping would alter the earth’s orbit at all. Even if it did, he says, it wouldn’t be enough to change the climate.

While World Jump Day sounds silly, it could be a fun, dorky opportunity to be a part of world-wide performance art. Be careful, have fun, and with some luck Friday may be cooler than forecast. ;-)

Posted in: global warming, humor, Lifehacks, world jump day