Earth Hour... what a crock!

This Saturday, between 20:30 and 21:30 local time, many places on the Earth will be taking part in Earth Hour.


What a CROCK!!!

Once again the feel-good environmentalists will have their little hour huddled with their buddies by candlelight or maybe no light at all thinking that they are making a big dent in global warming, energy reduction, etc.  What needs to happen is that things like this need to happen ALL the time, not just for one hour, on one day of the year. 

When I drive in Toronto at night, for instance, many of the office towers are brightly lit, yet most of the these buildings are vacant of people.  WHY ARE THE LIGHTS ON???  And don't tell me its for air traffic.  Tall buildings have those flashing red lights.  Whatever happened to turning out the lights when you leave a room?

When I walk into any local supermarket or department store, I sometimes have to shield my eyes because they are so bright.  Sure, they turn off half the lights during high heat days, but why not turn off half the lights all the time?  You could rotate, one day one half is on, then the other.  On the reduced light days, the illumination is really no different.  Its not like you are walking in a darkened room.  Displays and merchandise are still readily visible.

Even the school board I work for has the computers set to turn off automatically at 20:00. Ummmm... the latest the schools get out is 15:30... why not have them turn off at 4:30.  Few people other than teachers are in the building after 4:30.  Why do the computers have to stay on?  Its ridiculous!!!

Bjørn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, wrote, "It is vital to make solar and other new technology cheaper than fossil fuels quickly so we can turn off carbon energy sources for a lot longer than one hour and keep the planet running... Fossil fuels literally gave us an enlightenment, by lighting our world and giving us protection from the fury of the elements. It is ironic that today's pure symbolism should hark back to a darker age."

And the the Ayn Rand Institute wrote, "Participants spend an enjoyable sixty minutes in the dark, safe in the knowledge that the life-saving benefits of industrial civilization are just a light switch away... Forget one measly hour with just the lights off. How about Earth Month... Try spending a month shivering in the dark without heating, electricity, refrigeration; without power plants or generators; without any of the labor-saving, time-saving, and therefore life-saving products that industrial energy makes possible."

People like Al Gore piss me off.  He makes a big talk about how we need to do this that and other thing to prevent global warming (a very disputed theory, BTW), yet his own carbon footprint is massive!  People who buy a hybrid who think they are saving the planet ought to realize that a hybrid car has a enormous ecological footprint before it even leaves the factory.  A comparable diesel automobile has a lower footprint and would bring a overall lower footprint than a hybrid.


Don't be a fool and fall for these trendy environmental events.  They have little day to day impact.  These are things that need to occur twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and three hundred sixty-five days a year.


And don't forget to turn off that light on your way out!