It all began with Earth Hour 2007. In Sydney Australia, on the last Saturday in March 2007 2.2 million people turned off their lights. Why? To show their support for a global mandate for action on Climate Change. Only a year later in 2008 and this event had become a global sustainability movement with up to 50 million.
Earth Hour, as you all know, was a worldwide initiative that occurred last Saturday in order to reinforce the idea of climate change being a major threat to our planet. Everyone was encouraged to turn off all of their lights for a whole hour, whether at home or at the office. In terms of global warming and climate change being an immediate threat, I must say that I stand on the side of the many climatologists and meteorologists who believe that such a drastic shift will not occur in the next hundred years. Nonetheless, I still think Earth Hour was a great idea.
Naturally, there were plenty of things to be said about Earth Hour, from both the positive and the negative sides. A lot of the negative criticism spoke of how it was a “gimmick” and that it really did not promote any positive results. No matter what, conserving electricity is isn’t a bad thing and I’m happy to be promoting the idea of environmental conservation. However the whole idea and intention of Earth Hour must be clear. Some people join the cause because they want to feel good about themselves by showing the world they’ve done their part in saving the mother earth. Others join simply because majority people are joining. Knowing the pros and cons of this event will make us wiser in our judgment that we are not supporting the cause without thinking the impact, the issues and the ideas of the event. One must be intellectually support their own perspective on the idea of Earth Hour that has been dubbed as a publicity stunt.
I support the cause because of 2 reasons although i doubt it will make any difference tomorrow. For one, i know the mass media and publicity towards this event will raise awareness to more people worldwide about global warming and secondly, it’s great opportunity to unite people all over the world with the spirit to make a difference for this cause. To be honest, I just find it comical that so much criticism was displayed publicly in reference to this event. No, Earth Hour might not really accomplish a whole lot. However, I am not going to stand in the way of an idea that apparently has nothing but good intentions.
Below are some who against Earth Hour who believe Earth Hour is just a waste of time and will be gone in 60 minutes .
Karsten- I think Earth Hour is a colossal waste of time and results in way too many people feeling good about themselves and their “actions”, while nothing really changes.
First of all, 1 hour per year equals 0.07% of the year. Doing something for one hour and feeling good about it is pathetic considering that we may have to reduce our consumption levels by 50-80% forever if what we have shall be shared fairly among 6.5 billion humans.
Secondly, turning lights off does very little. If you want to do something, you should begin with something big. More than just a symbolic action. I calculated last year that my family alone reduced our electricity consumption by a larger amount than the whole town of 2500 people had they participated in Earth Hour (which they did not) just by not using the electric clothes drier all year. No, this could not be seen from space.
Thirdly, while electricity consumption may go down, it is debatable though if electricity production goes down as well. Power plants may not respond to an hour-long dip in the consumption. I posted a question in regard to this a few weeks ago. It seems electricity either gets dumped, transferred somewhere else, or possibly stored. It probably depends on the power plant. I cannot imagine that much happens when people use less electricity only for one hour. The way I understand it, the same amount of electricity is produced, the same amount of green-house gases are emitted, the same pollution occurs.
We need more than popular statements and easy actions. They result, in my opinion, in complacency and unjustified patting oneself on the shoulder. Earth Hour may be a start for some, but it is not a good start for anyone. Should we really support actions that result in people doing very little for one meager hour, who go back to what they did before after that hour, and feel good about themselves for a much longer time? If people are willing to only go as far as Earth Hour asks you to go, we are screwed.
I READ with amazement and irony the efforts of WWF Malaysia to latch on to the Earth Hour event and all the celebrities, media and corporations that have come up in support.
It is amazing that people are so easily taken in by a mere publicity stunt that fails at the very essence. Turning off our lights for one hour on one designated day of the year to save our planet surely is a PR event at best.
It shames the thousands of devoted people, government bodies, scientists and environmentalists that have for years been working on finding real solutions to address this global concern. Malaysians should see past this gimmick by international NGOs and start changing their lifestyles. Surely we can be more proactive and not be fed by an agenda of international bodies.
Why don’t we implement power conservation programmes, ride public transport on certain days in a month, car pool, etc?
It is also ironic that the organiser, WWF Malaysia, up until very recently, did not even have a climate change programme to begin with when all others (even local groups and individuals) have been persistent in their pleas for Malaysians to take action.
Remember, our leaders signed the Kyoto Protocol and there has been concerted movement towards reaching solutions. Please let us all be enlightened and move away from celebrations and gimmicks.
MARCUS,
Petaling Jaya.
Carter Roberts, head of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which sponsored Earth Hour, said the global event was designed to “make a statement about our commitment to solve the climate change problem and symbolize the commitment that people will make throughout the rest of the year.” (Hear Roberts talk about Earth Hour on this week’s Greencast.)
Watching the lights wink off in major metropolitan areas now doubt looked impressive, but it’s worth asking: What was the point? As Roberts himself noted, the energy saved by turning off the lights for an hour “won’t make an enormous difference.” So, if it won’t cut carbon emissions, why bother then with Earth Hour, or Earth Day or Earth Live, last year’s daylong concert for the environment?
Because climate change is essentially a political problem, and the language of politics is symbolism. Just because an act is symbolic doesn’t mean it empty. The only way to truly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to take the pressure off global warming, is an international regime that puts a cap and a price on climate pollution. And the only way that will happen is if politicians around the world become convinced that climate change is an issue that matters to people, one that will make them change the way they live, buy — and vote. “Unlike most of the issues that we grapple with, climate change is global,” said Roberts. “The pressure is on us to do the right thing.” If shutting off the lights for an hour on a Saturday night and doing yoga in the dark makes that political support, well, visible, then Earth Hour will have been worth it.
The environmental movement is reaching a delicate moment. We’re well past the point where going green is novel, where just doing your bit to save the Earth deserves endless praise. We’ve become inured to the existence of global warming, to its inconvenient truth, yet we sense that the solutions we’ve been given — change a light bulb, change your life — fall far short of the scale of the problem. We risk green fatigue because, after all, what can we do about it? But this is the moment when we need to keep pushing in every way we can. The technologies that will help us decarbonize energy are developing, but they need a push — and that will only happen if we keep climate change near the top of our political agenda. Earth Hour, Earth Day, Earth Year — we’ll need it all.
