What did you do for Earth Hour? The (yawn) reality

Here’s a collection of thoughts, quotes, and of course the result of our WUWT poll on “what did you do for Earth Hour?

First, my own experience: Being keenly aware of it days ahead, even I forgot about it at the appointed time, having been distracted by normal family happenings, so I didn’t remember to turn on all my outdoor lights until 8:50PM. Given other news reports, it seems the novelty has worn off, and many many simply either forgot about it or don’t care.

Pointless symbolism isn’t what it used to be I suppose.

Here’s the newsbytes describing the (non)event worldwide (Thanks to Tom Nelson for many of them):

Toronto only sees 5 per cent power drop for Earth Hour

Is Toronto in the dark when it comes to Earth Hour?

Millions of people from 134 countries — from Delhi, India to Heidelberg, Germany — switched off their lights and televisions for the fifth annual Earth Hour on Saturday night to show their support for action on climate change.

But Toronto only saw a 5 per cent power drop during the event — half of the reduction achieved during Earth Hour in 2010.

The year before that, the city had a 15 per cent drop in megawatts being used.

“Honestly we still think it’s successful, we think it’s a great program,” said Jennifer Link, a spokeswoman for Toronto Hydro, who added that cool temperatures likely had many people using more heat than this time last year.

Earth Hour fans ‘disappointed’ to see so many lights still on

In Toronto, energy use fell by 115 megawatts between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., a drop of about 5 per cent, said Jennifer Link, a spokeswoman for Toronto Hydro.

Last year, the city’s Earth Hour efforts saved 296 megawatts; in 2009, it was 454 megawatts.

Meanwhile, Nova Scotia Power reported saving 10 megawatts of power, a significant drop from last year’s 18 megawatts.

Toledo pays little attention to Earth Hour

‎Locally, the Toledo Zoo participated in the event. Facebook responses included “this is so silly”, “there is no way I can close early to participate” “C’mon, on a freezing cold Saturday night?” and “I enjoyed the hour”.

h/t to reader Brad R for this one below:

“Utility provider Enmax reported no noticeable drop in power consumption between 8: 30 p.m. and 9: 30 p.m. Saturday, when residents were asked to participate in Earth Hour by shutting off all nonessential power.”

How Was Your Earth Hour? ~ Philippines

As we drove along Ortigas Avenue, I was freakishly disappointed. Why? Because lights were on and it was Earth Hour.

Inside the car, I thought I wanted to blame the relatively-poor marketing the Earth Hour guys had on this year (You haven’t really noticed the Earth Hour 2011 ads as well right? You know they were there but the campaign wasn’t convincing enough).

My Experience of Earth Hour | My Mind, Thoughts and Feelings

Unfortunately, where I was, it was only us who participated in this event.

My parents slept early and I was left with my two grandchildren, age 6 and 7. I had to explain to them what this was all about.

Being just kids, they were restless. They kept on asking me how long will this last and why was it our neighbors did not do the same thing. I told them that it will only last for one hour and they should be proud to be a part of this worldwide event, to take a stand against climate change.

While we were waiting for the hour to pass, I decided to say the rosary and let them join me.

…Kids have this way of asking questions that any mature person would not dare to ask.

…

Five minutes after the hour had passed, we turned on the lights. They kids were happy.

The Earth Hour has passed. In retrospect, I questioned myself if I can still go beyond.

Tonight, LAX pylons will go green — and then dark — to mark Earth Hour – chicagotribune.com

Earth Hour will come early to Los Angeles International Airport. The ring of 15 100-foot-tall towers near the airport’s entrance will light up a solid green at 7:30 p.m. — an hour before Earth Hour — and remain illuminated for 60 minutes. Then the lights will go out from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., an airport news release says.

[Yeah that’s just what I want from Earth Hour, screwing around with the electricity at one of the worlds busiest airports]

World switches off light as ‘Earth Hour’ begins 

“We did hesitate a bit (about calling for Earth Hour in Japan) because there are many without electricity in disaster-hit areas,” said Naoyuki Yamagishi, climate change programme leader for WWF in Japan.

Leo Burnett Chicago Kicks Off the Next Generation of Earth Hour, Activates Global Social Media Campaign Reaching 128 Countries | NEWS.GNOM.ES

“Our goal for Earth Hour 2011 is to reach new, unprecedented heights of social engagement to fuel the single largest act of global participation the world has ever seen,” said Carey Isom, Senior Vice President of Digital Strategy at Arc Worldwide/Leo Burnett Worldwide. “As a HumanKind communications company dedicated to putting a brand’s purpose at the center of everything we do, we are honored to bring awareness and activation to this very special cause.”

…

Earth Hour is the largest mass participation event in human history and was organized by WWF—an election between Earth and global warming, organized the largest mass participation event in human history.Created by Leo Burnett Sydney in 2007 and carried on by Leo Burnett Chicago, Earth Hour was the first time people of all nationalities, race, ace, gender and religion were able to vote on the future of our planet as one global democracy. Now, just five years later, more than one billion people turned off their lights in celebration of Earth Hour.

[Hmm, more like a billion people don’t HAVE electricity:

1.6 billion people — a quarter of humanity — live without electricity:

Breaking that down further:

Source: globalissues.org Poverty Facts and Stats]

Dubai, Sharjah Earth Hour saves 249000KW

‎

Yeah but, how much more CO2 did they release organizing the celebration, getting people there, and putting that guy up in the helicopter/airplane/hotair balloon/whatever to get the shot?

To celebrate the worthy cause and encourage participation by residents and businesses in Earth Hour, Dewa, in partnership with Emirates Wildlife Society (EWS) in association with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Emaar and other government departments and local schools and universities and NGOs and private sectors and residents, marked the event with a traditional Arabic heritage village at Emaar’s Burj Plaza in the Downtown district adjacent to the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa.

Over 20 Arabian tents filled with arts and crafts, traditional cooking stations, El Arish hospitality, educational exhibitions, music and many local gifts and souvenirs were enjoyed by over 6,000 people who took part in the fun festivities and Earth Hour celebrations. A family occasion, children were also catered to with their own arts and crafts tents, face-painting, delightful entertainment and a conservation exhibition to educate and inspire their young minds.

Council’s ‘lights out’ weekend branded tokenism (From Oxford Mail) 

THIS weekend Oxford City Council will turn off all “non-essential” lights in a bid to tackle global warming.

But Green campaigners say it begs the question: why are lights burning in the first place if they are not needed?

Especially as the authority employs a climate change officer at a cost of £44,000 a year.

Celebrate good times, climate realists: THIS is what winning looks like

What Makes Earth Hour Fun? | Real Science 

They know the lights will be back on in less than an hour. If they tried Earth Month instead, that would be the end of the global warming religion.

Here is the results of the WUWT poll, as of noon PST, March 27th:

It seems wildly popular to turn on lights, or ignore the whole idea, rather than turn them off, doesn’t it?

However, in one country, North Korea, Earth hour was once again a stunning success:

Night-time satellite photo of North and South Korea. Note the single light for “Dear Leader”. Image from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program