I'm not impressed

Earth Hour. What a joke. In what is likely one of the most meaningless publicity stunts the world has ever contrived, people were being asked to turn off their lights for an hour - at night no less - in a show of solidarity and support for saving energy to help save the planet. What I really liked about this effort is that it unfortunately made it rather obvious how few people actually care about making a statement about energy, because I'll bet you the majority of folks didn't even bother. In 2008, the best result was reported from New Zealand, where in Christchurch, they saw electricity use go down by 13% for the hour. That was the best case! Last year in Calgary, electricity use during the hour actually went up 3.6%. In our defence, it was bloody cold that day.

I'm sorry, but this little stunt does absolutely nothing. Just because you turned your lights off for one hour along with several million other people doesn't mean squat. Your governments aren't going to be motivated to do anything different. It's very likely that even you won't be motivated to do anything different. It makes for great news though. Oh - here's a question - did any billboard lights get turned off? I think not.......

Did I turn my lights off? Not in exactly in the same way Earth Hour participants did, no. I did one better. I have been in the habit of turning lights off whenever I leave a room. I have done this for years, saving countless kilowatts of electricity. I have begun replacing high energy use bulbs in my home with energy saving ones. And a whole lot of other little things that save little bits of energy in the short term, but a lot over the long term. And I do these things 365 days a year. That is my contribution. It's not climate-changing, but it helps. Let's focus on the little changes that can reduce our energy use on a daily basis. It makes a much bigger difference.

Earth Hour..... Give me a break. What we need is Earth Life!

Thanks to Mark for motivating me to write this rant.