EARTH HOUR: IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK
Earth Hour, an annual event organized by the folks at The World Wildlife Fund, attempts to raise awareness of environmental issues by asking people go without lights for one hour on just one evening of the year. Last night was that night.
Sadly, over the years it has become fashionable to attack Earth Hour for what are claimed to be its failings. Detractors tell us the Earth Hour event generates more CO2 than it eliminates, perpetuates damaging myths about environmentalism (myths like the idea that doing something positive means going without), and gives people the wrong idea about what it will actually take to solve our current energy problems.
Only, these are strange and false claims. On their website The World Wildlife Fund explains quite clearly what Earth Hour is and what it is not. Earth Hour isn’t about saving electricity. The World Wildlife Fund asks participants specifically to only shut off non-essential lighting, the least inconvenient and least consumptive power consumer in your home. Earth Hour organizers do not pretend that a few people turning off a few light bulbs is going to, in itself, reduce CO2 emissions and save us from climate change. (Though if you listen to the media or energy company officials you will get this impression. Of course, every dime you save turning out your lights is a dime cut from their profits and from advertising revenue, so...) Moreover, the Earth Hour folks fully acknowledge that your outdated and backward fossil fuel power grid, and those that operate it, do not (and cannot) anticipate public participation in Earth Hour. Earth Hour also understands that when the old coal grid, like your old gas burning jalopy, experiences quick starts and stops it produces more emissions than if it maintained a steady constant speed. As a result, you will note, The World Wildlife Fund doesn’t keep track of the Earth Hour impact on power consumption or greenhouse gas emissions: that’s not what this is about. Nor is Earth Hour about the rejection of “modern technology” (What, the light bulb?) In fact, it’s the opposite. Earth Hour is about trying to convince you to embrace the 21st century and put the worst parts of the 19th and 20th behind us.
Arguing that Earth Hour – a reduction in power consumption – actually generates CO2 on the grid you’re tapped into (a system built by my grandparents using my great-grandparent’s technology) is the point Earth Hour is attempting to make and the very conversation they want you to have! Claiming that this is a strike against Earth Hour and a reason for your avoiding participation and further conversation (and a clear indicator of your moral superiority) is a very strange form of logic indeed. Earth Hour is a pointedly symbolic global event (carried out at night for visual impact) meant to get you to recognizes this, connect with others at home and around the globe, and make something of this learning over the following 8,764 hours – until the next Earth Hour comes around.
Regarding energy, the fact is that the average North American uses twice as much power as the average European while achieving essentially the same quality of life. And, importantly, because energy efficiency and energy alternatives are built into many European power grids, and new technology is constantly being integrated, individuals don’t have to make sacrifices or even think about their energy choices day-to-day. The Germans and Danes aren’t sitting in the dark plotting how to stave off the 21st century for as long as possible, as we’re so happy to do. Instead, they have a diverse power system, one increasingly dominated by fossil fuel-free alternatives, and they own appliances and gadgets that sip energy rather than guzzle like ours (by having higher government standards and increased regulation. *gasp*) Earth Hour fully understands this and the fact that the problem here is not about the micro (the personal choices we make around power consumption) but about the macro (the infrastructure that determines what choices individuals and whole industries have.)
But Earth Hour is also about more than just energy. Earth Hour is about starting conversations about our impact on the world and what we can reasonably do in response. For instance, in Argentina folks used Earth Hour to mobilize the public to back a bill that would protect 3.4 million hectares of ocean for marine life. This action saw that nation’s ocean wildlife reserves grow by 300%. In the UK and Finland candle-lit dinners have been held to highlight the impact of climate change on agriculture. This is what Earth Hour is about.
Earth Hour has grown from a group of folks in Australia into the largest grassroots environmental action on Earth. In this way, by being an uncommonly visual and global event, Earth Hour threatens the fossil fuel status quo. Because the mechanisms and effects of climate change are often hard to see and happen slowly over long periods of time, we are easily lulled into believing that the problems are overstated, or that they won’t impact us. But when we can see hundreds of millions of people coming together annually in concern, and with action in mind, well, anything is possible. And, as a result, it’s not surprising then that Earth Hour is denounced so publicly...
Sure, don’t turn off that light in your kitchen if you don’t want to. But do take a hour out of your life to find a way to throw your support behind someone doing something really great. Don’t do it to save the planet. Don’t do it for future generations. Do it for yourself; after all, you are the Earth.
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