I thought this essay deserved a wider audience. I have added some paragraphing to aid readability but changed not a word. Reprinted with permission.
– John A
The whole mentality around Earth Hour demonizes electricity. I cannot do that, instead I celebrate it and all that it has provided for humanity. – Ross McKitrick
Earth Hour: A Dissent
by Ross McKitrick
In 2009 I was asked by a journalist for my thoughts on the importance of Earth Hour.
Here is my response.
I abhor Earth Hour. Abundant, cheap electricity has been the greatest source of human liberation in the 20th century. Every material social advance in the 20th century depended on the proliferation of inexpensive and reliable electricity.
Giving women the freedom to work outside the home depended on the availability of electrical appliances that free up time from domestic chores. Getting children out of menial labour and into schools depended on the same thing, as well as the ability to provide safe indoor lighting for reading.
Development and provision of modern health care without electricity is absolutely impossible. The expansion of our food supply, and the promotion of hygiene and nutrition, depended on being able to irrigate fields, cook and refrigerate foods, and have a steady indoor supply of hot water.
Many of the world’s poor suffer brutal environmental conditions in their own homes because of the necessity of cooking over indoor fires that burn twigs and dung. This causes local deforestation and the proliferation of smoke- and parasite-related lung diseases.
Anyone who wants to see local conditions improve in the third world should realize the importance of access to cheap electricity from fossil-fuel based power generating stations. After all, that’s how the west developed.
The whole mentality around Earth Hour demonizes electricity. I cannot do that, instead I celebrate it and all that it has provided for humanity.
Earth Hour celebrates ignorance, poverty and backwardness. By repudiating the greatest engine of liberation it becomes an hour devoted to anti-humanism. It encourages the sanctimonious gesture of turning off trivial appliances for a trivial amount of time, in deference to some ill-defined abstraction called “the Earth,” all the while hypocritically retaining the real benefits of continuous, reliable electricity.
People who see virtue in doing without electricity should shut off their fridge, stove, microwave, computer, water heater, lights, TV and all other appliances for a month, not an hour. And pop down to the cardiac unit at the hospital and shut the power off there too.
I don’t want to go back to nature. Travel to a zone hit by earthquakes, floods and hurricanes to see what it’s like to go back to nature. For humans, living in “nature” meant a short life span marked by violence, disease and ignorance. People who work for the end of poverty and relief from disease are fighting against nature. I hope they leave their lights on.
Here in Ontario, through the use of pollution control technology and advanced engineering, our air quality has dramatically improved since the 1960s, despite the expansion of industry and the power supply.
If, after all this, we are going to take the view that the remaining air emissions outweigh all the benefits of electricity, and that we ought to be shamed into sitting in darkness for an hour, like naughty children who have been caught doing something bad, then we are setting up unspoiled nature as an absolute, transcendent ideal that obliterates all other ethical and humane obligations.
No thanks.
I like visiting nature but I don’t want to live there, and I refuse to accept the idea that civilization with all its tradeoffs is something to be ashamed of.
Ross McKitrick
Professor of Economics
University of Guelph
h/t to the Bishop Hill blog for bringing this essay to my attention
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Tom Konerman says:
March 17, 2011 at 6:30 pm
“I’m looking for a word here…. is man “supernatural” “unnatural””subnatural”???”
The word that comes to my mind is rational. We are natural, of course, with the ability to reason, which is our only means of survival. From the trader on Wall Street to the bushman in the Kalahari, all humans have to think in order to live. We either choose to be rational and support our own lives, or live irrationally and let nature take its course.
jojo says:
March 17, 2011 at 9:23 am
What a load of rubbish. Completly misses the point of Earth Hour
It is about humanities massive wasting of energy.
———-
Bob Ryan says:
March 17, 2011 at 10:12 am
…. I agree with him in recognising the contribution of cheap electricity to the growth and prosperity of humanity. But that is not what Earth-Hour is about. It reminds us that irrespective of out views about climate change we have a duty to be frugal in our own consumption of scarce resources….
———-
hMAd says:
March 17, 2011 at 2:00 pm
… Earth hour is observed to raise awareness. Not to protest against electricity, or the use of it. It is to bring to the front the fact that electriciy, just like any other forms of energy is scarce and people should preserve it. Limit the usage!
=//=//=//=
Interesting. Apparently, not too long ago the Earth Hour website was quoted as saying:
Then there’s this web page:
And these press releases:
All emphases are mine, of course.
There have been many small, ‘aboriginal’ or ‘native’ societies which recoiled from acculturation, assimilation, or worse, at the hands of the expanding West. Not all of indigenous life is dreariness or drudgery, and few pre-contact cultures have survived missionaries, government agents, rapacious businessmen, and the like, without losing their own sense of cultural identity, language, customs, and social integrity.
But we can’t preserve these societies like specimens in zoos, and once most have been exposed to the gizmos and geegaws of modern technology, they see where the future lies, and knowing what they have lost, also know what they want. The vast majority of poor peoples in the world are not intact ‘tribal’ societies at all, but peasants tied to pre-industrial bondage, by an historical succession of tyrants, some indigenous, some not—chieftains, kings, emperors, viceroys, governors, and whatnot. Their salvation lies with becoming part of the vast expansion of wealth made possible by the Western Enlightenment ethic of individualism and entrepreneurship, mediated by cheap, abundant energy.
/Mr Lynn
Ross McKitrick, I applaud you for this whole marvelous essay, but wish to add a side note to this paragraph: “People who see virtue in doing without electricity should shut off their fridge, stove, microwave, computer, water heater, lights, TV and all other appliances for a month, not an hour.”
In the late ‘40s and early ‘50s we lived that way. Our farm, not very far from the capital city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, was in an odd pocket which was without electricity. It was a magnificent brick home surrounded by rich soil; but nary an electric wire in anything but the ’36 Dodge and the ex-army Blitz Buggy.
Our mother cooked with wood, and we lived (and did our homework) after dark courtesy of kerosene lamps, and even though we were used to electricity in our grandparent’s home in Melbourne, and in our various schools, we never felt deprived at home, nor missed the convenience of a light switch.
None of this alters the message of your essay; but it does add a shading.
Fact is, I often feel a real nostalgia for those “primitive” days of my youth.
Good stuff, Ross. Adam Smith, in the Wealth of Nations more or less said the same thing – in 1776.
I see I’m not the only one to show token resistance. I have started leaving my mobile phone chargers plugged in… costs next to nothing. On the other hand I am now having to skimp on my heating as I can’t afford to heat my tiny flat, with electricity getting so expensive…
JimF says:
March 17, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Good stuff, Ross. Adam Smith, in the Wealth of Nations more or less said the same thing – in 1776.
Didn’t Adam Smith also say this in the same book?
“To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers; but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers.”
Tom Konerman;
I’m looking for a word here…. is man “supernatural” “unnatural””subnatural”???>>>
I remember neither the exact quote nor the author (Heinlein perhaps?) but it was along the lines of:
When a beaver builds a dam, it is natural. When a human builds a dam, it is evil.
Speaking of poverty and all that: much to the probable discomfiture of the Greens, Rome-Clubbers, and other Thanophiles, the 2005 target of halving poverty in 10 yrs was completed in half the time — by 2010. Mostly due to the increased coal-fired power generation in China and India, it seems.
Oops!
Shona: get thyself a wee fan, and set it in the corner. Point or deflect the airflow upwards (only some fans’ bearings can tolerate vertical operation, so deflection is OK). It mixes cool floor air with warm ceiling air, makes for much greater comfort, and an up to 40% reduction in heating or cooling costs! The architectural built-in version is a hollow column in the corner with openings top and bottom, and a small internal fan. Direction of flow doesn’t matter: it’s the mixing that does it.
Works with everything from fireplaces to stoves to forced air to radiant heat sources.
I’ve used the technique for years, works great!
P.S. to above. A fan on low speed would use about 50W; that’s 20 hrs operation for 1 KW. You will save vastly more than that would cost with reduced heating demand.
Super Mr. McKitrick, perfect!!
” everybody wants to go back to nature, but nobody by walking on his feet!!”
This is a great essay; accessible but not simple, profound but not pretentious.
In Australia the government funded ABC has been running many pro-AGW articles and practically none with counter arguments; here are a couple of egregious ones:
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/45244.html#comments
And this effort attacks Roy Spencer:
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/45086.html
If Ross is willing I would like to submit, on his behalf, his note here to Unleashed to see if under the ABC’s nominal rules of balance it can get published.
Many thanks to Ross for putting it so well.
Actually, Earth Hour is pretty useful as it gives me an opportunity to express my contempt for this anti-science, anti-humanity nonsense. If there is another Earth Hour I’ll be putting on all my lights.
How appropriate that this nonsense is celebrated by putting off the lights. If these idiots have their way, our lights will be going off regularly due to power cuts. The sad thing is that we have the capability to generate an abundance of energy from coal, gas and – yes – nuclear. But it’s the extreme environmentalists who have been busily shutting off these options, hence the UK government’s obsession with covering our countryside with monstrosities that don’t work most of the time.
If they achieve their aim of around 30% wind power, we’ll be having enforced Earth Hours whenever the wind doesn’t blow, which is quite often. Except that each Earth Hour will last for many hours.
Chris
Gareth Phillips I doubt that many will turn up for a phoney protest, the NHS is dead and useless, its time is over and it needs replacing.. Earth hour is funny in Ontario, to cope with the drop in demand they turn off the hydro plants.
Feet2theFire said on Earth Hour: a dissent
They are the authors of the “documentary” propaganda in which they show what the world will be like 100 years after humans are all gone.
The only “documentary” I’ve seen like that is “Life After People”, and it has served wonderfully to confirm my basic premise: In the end, Nature wins.
thefordprefect [TFP] scolds:
Drive a small efficient car, cycle to work, take only one flight holiday per year.
“thefordprefect” persona is a busybody eco-lecturer. I will continue driving my CO2-belching 271 horsepower car. I will never cycle to work, unless it’s on a motorcycle, and I will take as many airline flights as I please – completely guilt free.
TFP continues:
Insulate your house, stop draughts, reduce the remperature during the winter and increase it in the summer by a degreeC.
As if everyone hasn’t heard that a hundred times. I’ve insulated my house to save money and for comfort, not to please little hitler wanna-be’s, who crave a totalitarian government to micro-manage everyone’s life.
I will keep the temperature where it’s most comfortable, in both summer and winter. I pay for it with my own earned money, and no busybody do-gooder is going to tell me how warm or cool to keep my house.
All this is feasible without loosing [sic] your freedom and without going back to the dark ages. Is this so much to ask?
Let me put it this way: Butt out, serf. I will live my life as a free man, paying my own way.
How can you say that ALL lack of industrialisation and wealth is caused by despotic governments – where is your proof. Perhaps you need to bring on line another of your personnas [sic] to back up your dross.
First, I can say that all lack of national industrialization is the result of bad government, because it is an obvious fact to the most casual observer. North and South Korea have the same people, the same geography, the same culture. One has good government that embraces the free market [or the Karl Marx term: capitalism], and the other is a Socialist/Communist totalitarian dictatorship. The problem from Albania to Zimbabwe is the same: bad government. The more Socialist/Communist a country’s government is, the worse off its citizens are.
And second: I have only one on-line persona: Smokey. That’s all. Both you and “walt man” have accused me this past week of having multiple posting names. That is not true. And for someone who names himself after a Douglas Adams character, who are you to criticize?
There’s a saying: A thief thinks everyone else is a thief. So the probability is high that both TFP and walt man post under various names. I do not. Just because other commentators have criticized TFP’s post as I have, he wrongly assumes that they are me. That is certainly not the case, as those other commentators know.
Finally, TFP says:
Some aboriginal peoples prefer to be left with their lifestyle. Some may wish to progress to westenrn “civilisation” but because we have squandered to cheap fuel will not be able to reach their aspirations.
That is a bunch of horse manure. Every word of it. Some aborigines steer clear of technological civilizations out of fear, because technological civilizations have guns. But every civilization, from stone age to socialist, wants the goodies that come from a free market economy: modern medicine, cheap and abundant food, cheap energy, a huge selection of quality goods and services, electronic gadgets, heated homes, cell phones, you name it. And regarding “squandering” cheap fuel: it is exactly none of TFP’s business what people do with the energy they freely purchase. TFP’s argument is based entirely on his green-eyed envy of prosperous “capitalist” societies.
TFP is consumed by greed and covetousness. If he could, he would surely confiscate and expropriate the earned wealth of the citizens of “capitalist” countries – simply steal it outright, using any convenient feel-good eco-excuse – and hand it over to the opressive governments he worships, beginning with the UN.
The despotic leaders would, naturally, pocket TFP’s stolen loot. Their citizens wouldn’t get the benefit, any more than the citizens of Venezuela, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Iran or Zimbabwe get the benefit of the money their leaders intercept and steal.
TFP no doubt fancies himself as some sort of Robin Hood character. That’s an easy way for a thief to justify his actions. But Robin Hood stole from the bad, and gave to the good – exactly the opposite of what modern eco-thieves intend to do.
I guess the next step is celebrating Earthmas. Well, not celebrating exactly. What’s the word for wallowing in sanctimonious guilt trips again?
My favorite response to past Earth Hours were the satellite photos of black North Korea at night where those ideal greens celebrate it every night.
Has Maurice Strong moved there yet or is he still hiding in ‘green’ China?
An excellent essay! One more item I would add to the list for “people who see virtue in doing without electricity” is water from their tap. No doubt the city water or water from their own well requires an electrically powered pump, and the filtering, disinfection and purification would not occur without electricity. If you want to do away with electricity, plan to go without safe drinking water.
Smokey the Astroturfer says: March 18, 2011 at 2:12 pm
“I will continue driving my CO2-belching 271 horsepower car. I will never cycle to work, unless it’s on a motorcycle, and I will take as many airline flights as I please – completely guilt free”.
Thank you for this insight into your very selfish mind.
You seem very sure that squandering very useful portable source of power is fine -because you can aford to.
Do you not think of future generations?
thefordprefect says:
“Smokey the Astroturfer.” What’s an astroturfer?
OK then, on to the easy deconstruction:
TFP is in favor of a totalitarian society… and he calls me “selfish”?? I always think of future generations, and I certainly don’t want them under the hobnailed boot of a green watermelon dictatorship like TFP does. Individual liberty and the free market are infinitely preferable to an intolerant greenshirted gang intent upon sending scientific skeptics and energy users to the gulag.
And using an emotion-laden term like “squandering” energy is a failed tactic. Energy use is getting more efficient all the time. I have a 1993 car with a V-6. It puts out 164 rated horsepower, and gets exactly 20 miles per gallon city/highway. My 2010 car [yes, I have 2 cars, neener] is also a V-6, puts out 271 HP, and gets 23 combined miles per gallon. Increased efficiency, see?
TFP, I suggest you completely stop using any petrol products at all, in order to avoid being called a hypocrite. Peddle your bicycle around town, I enjoy the mental image of that immensely. And I also suggest you keep a copy of Henry Hazlitt’s Economics In One Lesson with you, because you haven’t a clue about economics.
Really, you seriously need to get your head out of the socialist clouds. The world doesn”t work the way you wish it would, not by a long shot. The free market, if left alone, will provide ample energy and prosperity for all. It always has, for the same reason that Malthus and the Luddites were wrong. The new Green Malthusian Luddites are just as misguided.
So, what’s an astroturfer? And I’m still waiting for either the other screen names that you believe I’m posting under, or an apology for deliberately casting baseless aspersions. You know how sensitive the UK is to libel, I’ve seen you post about it on Bishop Hill.☺
I hereby announce the month of April as being EARTH MONTH..
All those who TRULY BELIEVE that CO2 is an evil gas, MUST turn off all electrical appliances, not use their cars, etc etc for the WHOLE MONTH.
Another big plus:
without electricity, the “warmists” couldn’t post their junk-science on blogs !
or at least, only when the wind is blowing.
“I refuse to accept the idea that civilization with all its
tradeoffsbenefits is something to be ashamed of.”Agreed.
Apparently the watermelons are promoting another ‘Earth Hour’ at 8:30 PM on March 26th (Saturday). Might be a good idea to move this post up to the top then. Last year I turned on every light in the house (and the outside ones, too), as did some of our neighbors.
/Mr Lynn
I will be burning avgas at 36000 feet at that time (8:30 PM 26th March) and most likely enjoying a nicely chilled champagne. I will give earth Hour no more thought than to shake my head at the folly of the human hating greens.
Ed says:
March 17, 2011 at 7:28 am
… than forcing people to be sterilised, coercing women into abortion and rebuilding death camps.
Ahhh… green jobs for all.