Is Earth Hour really worth it? Discuss.

[thatcrazycajun]

Tomorrow night, people all over the world are being asked to spend an hour in the dark as part of the third annual observance of Earth Hour. From 8:30 pm local time to 9:30, the World Wide Fund for Nature (formerly the World Wildlife Fund) wants people to turn off lights, appliances and other energy-consuming devices as a means to raise awareness of the need for immediate action to keep the planet livable for all the creatures thereon in the face of human-caused climate change.

My good friend madfilkentist, ever the contrarian, is hosting a lively discussion over on his LJ page in which he declares the whole event meaningless and that he will spend the hour deliberately using extra energy in opposition. He ought to love the response to Earth Hour dreamed up by the right-wing think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute: Human Achievement Hour. Of course, a look at their corporate sponsor list reveals that many of the firms on which CEI relies for funding have a vested financial interest in actively preventing any organized response to climate change, or even the acknowledgment that it exists and that we caused it.

Is all this just a stupid, empty gesture by First Worlders racked with guilt? Or is it useful if even one consumer or CEO is moved to stop and think about how much they contribute to the degradation of the environment and depletion of non-renewable resources? And are the ones peeved by Earth Hour just reacting out of resentment at feeling pressured to change their habits by liberal finger-waggers? I'm curious to know what others among my readership think of Earth Hour '09 and how they plan to spend it. For myself, I plan to shut off everything in my home that can be safely shut off (the fridge is obviously right out, ferinstance—too much food in there already spoiling as it is) and spend the hour reading by candlelight.

Comments

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Similar -- I'll likely be playing the guitar in the dark. :)

[cellio]

I vaguely recall hearing of this somewhere a month or two ago, but until today haven't seen anything more.

I'm planning to ignore it. I neither embrace it nor shun it; it just doesn't seem relevant or effective. I guess my reaction boils down to "why should I bestir myself for this particular appeal?".

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I think it's a cool idea (literally) and will do something for it. I can't guarantee I'll be in the dark for an hour, but I'll turn off extraneous lights and maybe a few more. Heck, it would be fun to turn off the computer (!) and just go to the roof to take pictures of the dark city.

Assuming Mpls goes dark, even a little. I will, of course, use the stairs and not the elevator.

Contrarians are idiots with a death wish. If you don't think this is an effective way to raise awareness about climate change, fine. Do something else. Don't get in the way of those of us who care.

[gorgeousgary]

And are the ones peeved by Earth Hour just reacting out of resentment at feeling demanded to change their habits by liberal finger-waggers?

My personal feeling is that the answer to that question is YES.

The unfortunate thing about the whole global warming debate is that all of the other, equally valid, reasons for promoting energy efficiency have gotten ignored. Pollution, for example. I remember driving in and around LA for the '96 Worldcon. Every time I came down from the hills and got anywhere near Downtown LA, my nose stuffed up. When I went back out to Santa Monica, up to the Valley, Anaheim, or anywhere away from the middle of the basin--clear breathing.

Or how about mass transit/intercity rail. Are any of our conservative/libertarian friends in New England really happy with the lack of an affordable, much-faster-than-the-Acela high-speed rail option for getting from Maryland to Massachussetts? Do they really enjoy flying and dealing with the TSA and baggage fees? Or driving on the NJ Turnpike?

And is anyone really happy with our sending millions of $$$ to Venezuela, Iran and the like? No matter how you feel about our Middle East policies or any other elements of our foreign policy, there's plenty in the behavior of certain countries we buy oil from to piss off both the most anti-war of liberals and the neo-cons.

That being said, I will probably ignore Earth Hour. I do however plan to take some old computer equipment and some mixed paper/cardboard to the recycling center at the dump tomorrow...

[jannyblue.livejournal.com]

[F]lying and dealing with the TSA and baggage fees? Or driving on the NJ Turnpike?

Eeew. What a horrid set of choices. I've done both.

All else held equal, I'd rather fly. At least that's over faster.

[EDIT] Wait. That was rhetorical, wasn't it?

[jannyblue.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll turn 'em off, but I won't unplug 'em.

It would take more than an hour to unplug everything and then plug 'em all back in...

//will also hit the master switch on the power-strip for the Wii.
//has many things that blink and flash plugged into that.

[wolfette]

I'll be sitting in the dark for that hour - in the cinema.

Is it "worth it"? I dunno - it's about "raising awareness", and if it makes one person think about their power usage it's not worthless.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I don't think it will move anyone who hasn't already been moved. We have our own beef with the drive to make individuals save energy, which I articulated a little while back in a post on energy saving lightbulbs and how their inadequate illumination impacts on a partially sighted person.

That said, the contrarian response is nothing less than moronic. Sorry, but it is. Whatever one's feelings on climate change, wasting energy to make a point cannot be justified.

We will probably switch off some things tomorrow night. Probably not everything.

tangent

[cellio]

energy saving lightbulbs and how their inadequate illumination impacts on a partially sighted person

I'm glad I'm not the only one in that boat. I would be happy to use bulbs that are more enrgy-efficient than incandescent -- just as soon as they make ones with the right color temperature and effective wattage. Every CFL I've tried is too blue and LEDs are still too expensive and low-wattage. So things like the hall lights are CFLs, but for lights that really matter, like reading lamps and the light in my office, I have no alternative to incandescents, and if necessary will buy a lifetime supply in 2012 before it becomes illegal to sell them. (I kind of hope that LEDs are good enough by then so I don't have to.) Various people have tried to make me feel guilty over this, but vision concerns have to trump energy concerns.

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

Civilization, such as it is, did not cause the climate change/crisis. That said, it has impacted climate change to the negative.

It may be too late to reverse our impact, but we can minimize what will happen by being careful and considerate.

In a Perfect World™, the naysayers and wastrels would be the the ones to suffer the effects of their attitudes the most. But this is not a Perfect World™ and karma, although a b*tch, sometimes takes her sweet time in confronting people with their blatent stupidity.

I will not be taking Heroic Measures™ for Earth Hour, but, because of the events of my life over the last few years, I think I can safely say that my 'carbon footprint' has lessened considerably. Enough to make a difference? Probably not. But enough to make me feel somewhat better about what I will probably leave behind.

[mdlbear]

If I'm home and I remember, I'll probably turn many things off, but I won't unplug anything. And I won't turn off the fileserver, the router, or either of the two fridges. What the kids (age 17 and 23) do about it will be entirely up to them.

[allisona.livejournal.com]

"Whatever one's feelings on climate change, wasting energy to make a point cannot be justified."

I so agree with smallship1's statement above.

We turned off the lights and computers for an "Earth Hour" during school today and I'll do the same thing myself tomorrow night.

[egoldberg.livejournal.com]

What a fantastic idea! I'll also send in a few Facebook petitions - maybe join a group or two. That'll surely change American energy policy -- I know Obama reads every one and uses them to form national policy.

After all, who needs actual change or sacrifice when we can make symbolic, slacktivist gestures?

P.S. Anyone wanna participate in "Day without a Gay" with me next year, too? That'll surely show those evil, big corporations how important gay rights are.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Gee, Eli, sarcastic much? :-)

What do you see as the best thing to do, then? Give us alternatives and not just snark.

[egoldberg.livejournal.com]

Short answer:

What do I believe in? Find something you believe in that actually makes a real difference and go accomplish it. There's no "canned answer". It takes creativity and effort, not just going along with some protest fad.

Long answer:

http://madfilkentist.livejournal.com/408925.html?thread=1432669#t1432669

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

My chief reaction to Earth Hour is that I wish it weren't right around the time we have to use the car to go pick the children up from school, and then the microwave in order to feed them dinner. It is possible to work around those things but it's damn difficult. 8:30 PM EDT may be a matter of leaving off one's favorite TV show for the east coasters; for Seattleites, it's a matter of how the children get fed.

[jannyblue.livejournal.com]

I thought it was supposed to be 8:30-9:30 local time...

Sort of a "rolling wave" of darkness...

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Your kids are in school on a Saturday?! What the hezmana kind of school is that?

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

They're not, I misspoke. They are, however, still having dinner in the 5:30 range.

[poltr1]

I have a meeting at that time, so it's likely I won't be sucking up much juice at the specified hour. The fridge, computer, and timer light will probably be on, though.

I kind of regard Earth Hour the same way I regard those "boycott gasoline for a day" days. I'm skeptical that it would cause a significant dip in resources. I'll probably end up using the energy at a different time in a different way.

[gingicat]

We're hosting MASSFILC, and the kids will be at their grandparents for the night, so there's not the usual safety issues... maybe I'll take a vote at the business meeting. Maybe we could sing songs about human achievement by candlelight. :)

Relative Transitive Me

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

First Saturday has been moved up a week so John Boardman can attend his grandson's wedding next weekend. So during Earth Hour, I shall most likely be on a subway train heading there. I sincerely doubt John will put the lights out in the middle of a party. The lights in my room will be out anyway and the roommate often keeps her lights out to play computer games. Overall, no real impact will be made.

observable data

[maugorn.livejournal.com]

I think it works and that it is working, and here's why:

I didn't know about this two years ago, and hadn't heard anything about it from anywhere.

Last year, it was a big buzz, but only in my circles of friends who worked actively in the "green" community.

This year, I'm hearing about it from several different directions, and especially, MORE than ever before.

It's often said in the entertainment industry, that any publicity is good publicity, because people need to know your name to give you work. So whatever it takes to get people saying your name in the 1st place is a good thing.
And EVEN THO it can be a two edged sword, it's totally correct.

So doing this every year does two important things:
One- more and more people than ever before are becoming aware that even tho our energy problems and climate problems are a *collective* problem, it's still built out of a SUM of our individual choices. Which means that the more people who are pursuaded to choose differently, the more impact it makes.
The fact that it's growing indicates that on the day of, the difference it makes is growing. It might be only a miniscule difference, but it's non-zero. What's more, there are a lot of folk, who rightly see that the true differences to be made are in long term and large scale changes. More and more people are making *those* choices AS A RESULT of the increased attention for this day. I've observed this difference, and I see an upward trend.

And, while a "critical mass" of people who are making and demanding those changes has not yet been reached, it *can* be, by persistent and consistent application, and regular repetition. Making a "Fad" of this day is actually brilliant, even tho it provokes people to argue against it simply and only because it is a "fad". Big fat hairy deal. Argue away.
The more and the LOUDER this argument becomes, the more likely it is to actually affect more people.

The fact that a right wing think tank wants to propose an "alternative" to this action just shows that it is actually succeeding. It clearly shows that the attention to this issue is growing and that it *threatens* their agenda enough to warrant attention. Hilariously, they're playing right into the hands of the good guys, by *engaging* in debate.
It's been the silencing of the debate on this issue that has been the single crowning achievement of the previous administration for stifling progress on this front.

The more people who are ARGUING about this issue, the more attention it gets, and the more attention it gets, closer we get to critical mass of people making and demanding a difference.

The contrarian voices are useful in this regard, because they increase the amount of attention that the issue draws. The fact is that most people are NOT contrarian. Most people are NOT trolls. So *using* the trolls collective big mouths to draw attention to the issue will actually help, because most people will not do as they do, but increasing the amount of attention they pay will increase the amount of people calling for and doing the right thing.

It helps, of course that we now have elected leaders who are not trolls and contrarians themselves.

Re: observable data

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much, Maugie, for a far more eloquent response to the naysayers than any I could have written. It's not about what happens, or does not, on the day itself; it's about what happens afterward.