Environmentalists hail Earth Hour as a big success

[Editor]

Methinks they overstate their "success" somewhat:

Caption: The Eiffel Tower is shown just after the 20,000 bulbs illuminating the tower went out Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 8.90 p.m for five minutes. The City of Lights went dim when thousands of Parisians joined in an hour "lights-out" campaign aimed at showing citizens concern over climate change. (AP Photo/ Thibault Camus)

The city must be pretty well illuminated for that much light to be reflected off the clouds in the picture above.

In fact there's over a dozen pictures with the story below but, apart from a brief interruption in promotional/decorative/safety lighting on a few landmarks, what?

Anyone have access to emergency room data on the number of well-meaning dipsticks hurt falling over the furniture/kid's toys/cat/whatever or otherwise harming themselves attempting to emulate conditions of privation in their own homes (for the "good" of the planet)?

And there's another thing. How, exactly, is it supposed to be good for the planet depriving it of a magnificent resource in desperately short supply? Most surface life on this planet is dependent on green plants, which are totally dependent on atmospheric carbon dioxide, optimally at concentrations greater than 1,000 ppmv (they pretty much starve to death at 150 ppmv and below). I've never got a handle on that bit -- we are supposed to love the planet but starve it of life's critical resource...

Anyway, here's the AP enviro-spin on token privation:

Environmentalists hail Earth Hour as a big success

By VANESSA GERA

BONN, Germany (AP) — For environmental activists, the message was clear: Earth Hour was a huge success.

Now they say nations have a mandate to tackle climate change.

"The world said yes to climate action, now governments must follow," the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said Sunday, a day after hundreds of millions of people worldwide followed its call to turn off lights for a full hour.

From an Antarctic research base and the Great Pyramids of Egypt, from the Colosseum in Rome to the Empire State building in New York, illuminated patches of the globe went dark Saturday night to highlight the threat of climate change. Time zone by time zone, nearly 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries dimmed nonessential lights from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

WWF called the event, which began in Australia in 2007 and grew last year to 400 cities worldwide, "the world's first-ever global vote about the future of our planet."

The United Nations' top climate official, Yvo de Boer, called the event a clear sign that the world wants negotiators seeking a climate change agreement to set an ambitious course to fight global warming.

Talks in Bonn this week are the latest round in an effort to craft a deal to control emissions of the heat-trapping gases responsible for global warming. They are due to culminate in Copenhagen this December.

"Earth Hour was probably the largest public demonstration on climate change ever," de Boer told delegates from 175 nations. "Its aim was to tell every government representative to seal a deal in Copenhagen. The world's concerned citizens have given the negotiations an additional and very clear mandate."

Earth Hour officially began when the Chatham Islands, 500 miles (800 kilometers) east of New Zealand, switched off its diesel generators. It moved on through Asia, Europe and then crossed the Atlantic to North and South America.

"Earth Hour has always been a positive campaign," said Earth Hour executive director Andy Ridley. "It's always around street parties, not street protests, it's the idea of hope, not despair. And I think that's something that's been incredibly important this year because there is so much despair around."

Associated Press writers around the world contributed to this report.
On the Net:
Earth Hour: http://www.earthhour.org
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Earth Hour video: http://sn.im/enqwn

[Editor]

Here's a couple of related anecdotes:

Al Gore snubs Earth Hour - "The kicker, though, were the dozen or so floodlights grandly highlighting several trees and illuminating the driveway entrance of Gore’s mansion."

Probably very wise of Al -- wouldn't want to be sued by anyone falling over something in the dark...

As commenter Mike Borgelt notes:

In Brisbane it was reported that for Earth hour lots of people *drove* up to the top of Mt Coot-tha to watch the lights go out for Earth hour.

You just can’t make this stuff up.

Well, yes Mike, it was one of the advertised vantage points

[Willis]

Here's a couple of related anecdotes:

Al Gore snubs Earth Hour - "The kicker, though, were the dozen or so floodlights grandly highlighting several trees and illuminating the driveway entrance of Gore’s mansion."

Probably very wise of Al -- wouldn't want to be sued by anyone falling over something in the dark...

As commenter Mike Borgelt notes:

In Brisbane it was reported that for Earth hour lots of people *drove* up to the top of Mt Coot-tha to watch the lights go out for Earth hour.

You just can’t make this stuff up.

Well, yes Mike, it was one of the advertised vantage points

I think these stories highlight why the hippies are fans of coercion. Nobody is going to volunteer to return to a lower standard of living, and they can't even convince anyone turn out the lights entirely for one hour. 

[Editor]

Here's some more Dearth Hour madness, courtesy Tom Nelson:

For
Earth Hour candle causes CO2-spewing house fire; does $30,000 damage
Another Earth hour candle fire requires deployment of large fossil-fueled fire trucks
Sydney In Chaos As Huge Blackout Strikes click here

For a list of twittered Dearth Hour follies, click here.

Thanks Tom

[Editor]

Earth Hour Vigilantes? Earth Hour gets ugly as The Cairns Post reported yesterday:

AN elderly Cairns woman is believed to be the first victim of an Earth Hour vigilante after a mystery door-knocker pulled the plug on her lights just after the power-saving hour started. The 81-year-old's furious daughter Madeleine Brandt, who reported the incident to police, said the thoughtless "do-gooder" left her frail, Bayview Heights mother "to fumble and perhaps tumble in the dark" after going to her meter box and switching off the power.

Ms Brandt said the person had knocked twice on the door of the Lenora Close home just after 8.30pm on Saturday and had perhaps become frustrated at waiting as her mother, who had been watching TV, went to change out of her nightie. "Then suddenly, plink, out went all her power," she said.

"The real irony is that my mother, a child of the real Depression, wastes nothing in her life and is always very frugal with water, power, etc. She even buckets the water from her washing-up down into the yard to water her tomatoes."

[Editor]

Earth Hour or Blackout Night?

The Carbon Sense Coalition today came out in support of Earth Hour, but said it should be renamed “Blackout Night” and be held outdoors, for the whole night, in mid-winter, on the shortest and coldest day of the year - 22 June in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that spending just one night in the cold and the dark, with no hot coffee or beef on the barbecue, using no light, heat or vehicle energy from coal, gas, petrol or diesel, and without protection from metal or concrete structures, would be good practice for the blackouts and shortages to come if world rationing of carbon products and carbon energy is achieved.

“Winter nights are usually still and cold, so the candles crew can really experience what it will be like to depend on alternative energy when there is no sun and no wind. The back-to-nature brigade can also try living without iron roofs and concrete walls. And the eat-no-meat mob can experience a night without hamburgers and cappuccinos.

“To hold a candles-and-champagne party indoors, on the mildest night of the year, for just one hour, shows that the whole thing is tokenism. Moreover both candles and champagne emit carbon dioxide. Let the true believers try the real thing in one of the extreme seasons so they can appreciate the great benefits we take for granted when using all of our carbon fuels and foods.

“Instead of sneering at human achievements they should salute the people who keep the lights on for the other 364 days of the year.

“Australia gets almost 90% of its electricity from hydrocarbon fuels – black coal, brown coal, gas and oil. And without the nuclear power that underpins electricity supplies in more advanced countries, the massive cuts in carbon dioxide emissions demanded by the deep greens would see Australia headed for the Romanian power rationing experience - during the Ceaucescu regime in Romania, each house was limited to one25 watt bulb for all of their light.

“All over the world we have aging power stations and an orchestrated campaign by a few warm and well-fed agitators to harass, delay and deter construction of new power facilities.

“Such a campaign can only have one result – blackouts and brownouts will recur erratically every time we have extremes of cold or hot weather.

“So we support ‘Blackout Night’ to prepare our population for the dark days ahead”.

Viv Forbes, Carbon Sense Coalition

[Willis]

All over the world we have aging power stations and an orchestrated campaign by a few warm and well-fed agitators to harass, delay and deter construction of new power facilities.

I've always wanted to understand the psychology of Eco-Nazis who consider it a good idea to unnecessarily spend the night in the winter cold. Do they need a cause to fight for because they live relatively comfortable, peaceful lives? I once heard Dennis Prager say that wealthy, white college students latch onto hysteria-driven causes because there are no real enemies to fight. Sounds correct. I wonder if it holds up universally?

[Editor]

Wow! This Dearth Hour thing must be a huge success! Check this out:

HOUR EXTENDED
Tim Blair
Wednesday, April 01, 2009 at 03:21am

A brightly-illuminated sign above Sydney’s Botany Road:

The light-shunning event it promotes took place four nights ago, on March 28.

These photographs were taken on the evening of March 31.

Ultra Automotive in Alexandria is recommended for all your car-repair needs:

(Via Amber W.)

[Editor]

Australian interest in environment issues wanes as Facebook group urges Earth Hour power on

[refle]http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,6551348,00.jpg[/refle]

AN anti-Earth Hour group urging Australians to keep their lights blazing this weekend is a sign of waning interest in environmentalism, experts say.

The global Earth Hour movement – founded in Australia in 2007 – is asking people to switch off their lights for one hour on Saturday night.

But a Facebook group is urging people to "keep every light you own running during Earth Hour".

The group urges people to protest by switching lights on "if you think turning the lights out for an hour is completely ridiculous and will change nothing".

"Or if you just think people who really believe global warming is a giant threat are dumb, join this group to keep every light you own running during Earth Hour."

Group member Alexander Woodhouse says: "The Earth Hour makes people feel like they've done their share and makes them sleep better... that's nice for them but it doesn't really help the earth."

Another member wrote: "I don't believe the vast majority of those participating have given it enough thought to get to that point. ‘It's helping! I don't know how, but it's helping! I'm helping! I don't have to do anything else because I'm doing this now! Go me!'"

Growing trend

Australians have been losing interest in environmentalism for years, says social analyst David Chalke, who leads the annual AustraliaSCAN survey, a cultural change monitor established in 1992.

"Absolutely the GFC (global financial crisis) has accelerated a decline in interest in environmentalism that was already going on,” Mr Chalke said. "Environmentalism has been in decline among the Australian public for the last five or six years.

"The notion that we’re all becoming more environmentally concerned is not true. We get concerned occasionally when (global warming activist) Tim Flannery tells us we’re all going to die – but it’s not a genuine fundamental shift in values.

"The impending recession has focussed people’s minds and priorities and clearly they are much more focussed of my job, my family, my house, rather than the more distant and esoteric idea of climate change. The attitude is: if the climate changes we’ll live with it."

Candlelight

Earth Hour will see lights go out in 82 countries and more than 2400 towns between 8.30pm and 9.30pm (local time) tomorrow night. Organisers hope one billion people will switch off.

But practical measures – like demand for candles - suggest interest in the initiative has dipped this year.

Last year, nearly 10,000 candles were ordered by a Caulfield candle business in Melbourne to cope with the demand during Earth Hour, but shop owner Roy Merrington said demand had dropped markedly, The Age reported.

"I would like to think we would do the same (trade), but we will probably do half that," Mr Merrington said.

"People's attention is elsewhere … the conversation about the health of the planet is on the back burner, because people are paranoid about money — and quite rightly."

Symbolic

Dr Stephen Healy – associated with Centre For Energy and Environmental Markets at the University of New South Wales- said events like Earth Hour did raise awareness, but did not give people real opportunities to create change.

"I’m worried it’s (Earth Hour) just symbolic and doesn’t go much beyond that," Dr Healy said.

"It’s very difficult for people to make changes."

Climate change would not be arrested until governments and corporations got on board, he said.

Earth Hour’s global executive director Andrew Ridley said despite the tough economic times, it was still important to talk about the issue of climate change.

Awareness

"Climate change is something historically people think it’s too big and ‘what can we do about it?’," he said.

"We all have to be accountable to fix it."

But he also admitted Earth Hour was a symbolic gesture that would not achieve big real reductions.

"It’s symbolic. It’s for one hour, one day in a year for people around the world to work together to help deal with climate change.

"We’re at a stage where a sense of unity is really, really important.

"People need to know that a person in Brazil knows that a person in China feels the same thing."

See also the Anti Earth Hour blog