Every year at Christmas, many newspapers reprint “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus“, this excellent essay by Ross McKittrick should be repeated on every blog on every observance of Earth Hour. Copy, paste, and share it widely. A poll on what you plan to do to observe this event follows.
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
Image via Wikipedia
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
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UPDATE: MSNBC is running a similar poll here. It seem “Human Achievement Hour” has been noticed.
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Anthony:
Reposted here though the one or two people a day who view it are probably already convinced!
http://johneggert.wordpress.com/2012/03/31/earth-hour/
I also agree with Maurizio when he says “Nature” is also what humans make of it.
Beavers alter their habitat for survival as well. We and our alterations to our habitat are no less a part of nature than the beaver’s. We are just smarter and better at it than beavers are.
Cheers
JE
Absent reliable, available energy life is “nasty, brutish and short”. One out of three isn’t bad. At least, it’s short.
I will accept the emergency nature of modifying one’s carbon footprint when the attendees at a world environmental conference arrive by sail. No, I do not accept the symbolism of bicycling from the hotel.
I suppose I could shut off my lights for an hour and watch the Final Four game by whale oil lamp. After all, it’s the symbolism that counts.
whale oil
Renewable energy?
I have sent the following on Twitter:
“During the silly #EarthHour I’ll TURN ON EXTRA LIGTHS! Bad idea to make the world like #NorthKorea. Read http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/03/31/earth-hour-2012-a-dissent-and-poll/#more-60435”
Repeated also in Swedish. (Account @ahrvid. I also have an account named @SFJournalen for those interested in science fiction news from the Nordic region.)
–Ahrvid
I’m terribly sorry, but I just have to laugh every time I hear some dipsh1t say “save electricity”. Save electricity? for what? a raining day? One would be hard pressed to say anything more stupid.
I don’t “save” electricity, I use as much electricity as I can afford. I use electricity to work for me, to liberate me and to make my life better. I use electricity to try to make the lives of others better. I use as much electricity as I can.
Want to look stupid? … just say “save electricity”
Reblogged this on Climate Ponderings and commented:
We’ll leave the light on for ya!
Southern Hospitality – Celebrating ENERGY HOUR
Reblogged this on Is it 2012 in Nevada County Yet?.
…spare me from this fake illusion of unity
Although Earth Hour is merely a vacuous attempt by some mega consumers to make themselves feel better through proclaiming their “awareness”, a much more profound example of “doing without” is unfolding in the UK.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/fuel/9177397/Ministers-under-pressure-to-bring-in-emergency-rationing-as-999-crews-struggle-to-get-hold-of-fuel.html
Serious and even tragic stuff, and yet I couldn’t help noticing…
Mr. Pickles and Mr. Balls?
By the way, Earth Hour really has nothing at all to do with electricity. The symbolism of turning off lights is not demonizing the electricity which powers them. It is symbolizing unity with the concept of anthropomorphic global warming, and how humans need to do something immediately about this grave danger to the entire world. The whole point is to have some of our space-based cameras observe, from the difference in lighting between yesterday and today, how many people are supporting this concept of saving the world from humanity’s sins. Personally, I think this is all hogwash, smoke and mirrors, and the triumph of political will over useful idiots. But I found this link to a CNN news article, which describes what the Earth Hour people want to do and see:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/31/world/asia/earth-hour-preview/index.html
Earth hour doesn’t demonise electricity. I find McKitricks’ rant against it pretty sour-hearted. Earth hour is not so small or bloody-minded. It doesn’t make any material impact, but that is so not the point. It is part of the great tradition of symbolic acts in society, and it speaks well of humanity that it has come about at this time in our civilization/s and that it has such widespread appeal.
Earth hour is about conservation. It is about acknowledging that resources are finite. It is about affirming public willingness to protect the environment. It is about reminding ourselves to waste less.
It is entirely peaceful, almost romantic. And it happens all over the world. It’s like a serene vigil for the planet.
It’s voluntary. You don’t have to do it, no one is going to punish you if you leave the lights on. It’s not risky. No one gets hurt.
Of all the world wide traditions – christmas, Birthdays, New Year’s (of various calendars), this fine addition has a gentle demeanour, in a canon that is more odften rowdy and bawdy. All of it is great, and Earth hour adds some nice variety.
How about the people trying to do better for themselves by building more power generation?
http://www.nairaland.com/754092/federal-government-plans-3-coal-fired
Interesting discussion – so what is stopping/delaying the Nigerians from build their power plants that would free people, the very same people I image are burning “twigs and dung”? Greenpeace? Enviro-nuts? Foreign intervention? Earth Hour Enthusiasts? Nope. Looks like simple government corruption from reading the discussion comments.
Now, Why isn’t this corruption better monitored and more well known? And I suppose before I get too indignant about political practices in Nigeria concerning energy policy, I should not forget Solyndra et al right here at home…
Earth hour is a stupid, pointless exercise aimed, I would maintain, at distracting us from the very real issue of poor governance, poor husbandry of energy resource, and unfair, utterly irrational energy distribution of energy resource.
Well, I’ll be offsetting one idiot, because I have TWO houses to light up tonight!;)
The whole “earth hour” is another “feel good” WASTE! we won’t be saving anything! We will be DUMPING generated electricity. And to make matters worse (in Ontario) the IWT’s get priority over other (CHEAPER!) forms of power generation!
So in the end, we will be paying MORE money just to dump(waste) the power.
afreestyler says:
March 31, 2012 at 4:43 am
“It would also not surprise me if you disallowed the prior comment… as it is ‘anti’ your post, and I’m a female… Have a Happy Day.”
afreestyler appears to be an intolerant feminist. Your comments betray your privileged, limited and imature view of life. Try visiting a middle eastern culture before you embarrass yourself with future comments.
Folks,
Some posters are trying to re-invent Earth hour as something harmless and inoccuous.
Most people, including Ross and myself, are under the impression that the idea behind switching everything off for an hour was meant as an act of contrition – similar to the acts of penance meeted out by the Catholic Church; making attonement; reflecting on the harm of your ways; showing solidarity with the “planet”.
But then Sofullife tells us that Ross gets it all wrong: “I am afraid you got all “in your face” without noticing that the Earth Hour campaign does not seem to be arguing that fact. The campaign is merely reminding people that this is a resource that has some (not all) negative impact on the Planet. That’s all. Some negative (and scientifically proven) impact. The campaign is suggesting one hour – out of our 8760 hours in a year – to reflect on that.”
So, we have a global movement that is organising a global 1-hour switching off of non-essential power, simply to remind us that there are “some (not all) negative impacts.”
Why then, isn’t there a global road safety group that organises that everyone leave their cars at home for 1 hour because of the negative impacts of road travel?
Why isn’t there a movement that organises a “day of fasting” to make everyone aware of some of the negative impacts that agriculture has on the planet?
Why not a “no eating fish week” to remind people of the undeniable damage caused by overfishing?
The reason is because there is absolutely no point in organising and performing any of these events merely to “remind people that there is some negative impact.” Everybody who doesn’t live in a cave knows these things already. The only reason for such a dramatic gesture is to try to manufacture a seismic shift in behaviour. In other words, to persuade people to make huge changes to their lifestyles. Any other explanation fails the sniff test.
Now, how would you go about engineering such a behavioural shift? Do you go on about how “they would agree that electricity has many wonderful benefits and has made monumental impact on the advancement of our civilization.” as Sofulllife would have us believe?
Absolutely not! You have to induce a sense of collective guilt. You have to persuade that energy use – electricity use – is a sickness on the planet, making our Mother Gaia ill. That’s what all this nonsense over carbon footprints is about – it is a measure of the sin of each member of the human race.
And it doesn’t stop with fossil fuels. The only reason Greens allow solar and wind power, is because they are so completely useless. If ever a cheap, abundant source of sustainable emission free energy became available – eg polywell fusion or Thorium fission, what do you think would happen? Who was it who said “Giving mankind a source of cheap, abundant energy would be like giving an idiot child a machine gun.” Hint: it wasn’t a climate sceptic.
@ur momisugly afreestyler
“..you certainly don’t seem to understand the reason behind Earth Hour, which is far more about A: overuse of and getting people thinking about it ..”
I’ll just put this in simple words: You CAN’T ‘overuse’ energy. If you think you can, tell us how much energy use is ‘right’?
We use a lot more energy per head than our fathers did. Our children will use a lot more per head than we do. Read Julian Simon’s cornucopia theory…
No need for a poll. 95% of thieves support earth hour.
“evanmjones says:
March 31, 2012 at 7:22 am”
All oil is renewable, just takes some oils a bit longer than whale oil.
@tokyoboy
“Ummm…. something must be wrong with the right bottom corner of the night satellite photo, because it covers such fairly big cities as Hiroshima (population 1.18 million), Okayama (710,000), Kurashiki (480,000), Shimonoseki (280,000), and Kure (240,000); why are all these in complete darkness???”
There is a better picture of the Korean and Japan night lights here: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/dprk-dark.htm
Still only Pyongyang really shows any lights…After all all can’t expect “Dear Leader” to go without can we?
Can we just switch off Al Gore, achy icky Mann, Phil Jones, James Hansen, etc. instead? Would give the world a far more beneficial result.
Rule no 1:
Ignore all trolling.
My nuclear family and I used to spend our summers on an island off the coast of Maine. Nine fireplaces and 50 kerosene lamps were used a lot. But, the 100 year old 8000 sq ft house with two children would have been unmanageable without a diesel generator to allow a clothes washer and dryer and vacuum cleaner. On rainy days and some late evenings we had a small TV/video tape player and a laptop computer (no Internet). Refrigeration and stove were propane.
I was great living there. We thoroughly enjoyed the land and ocean and the kids really learned to appreciate how different, but still good life can be with little or not electricity. However, we ALL appreciated and loved to get back to our modern home and enjoy the progress!
I believe in God and freely admit that I have no hard proof that God exists. Earth Hour is for those who believe in CAGW but with the difference in that they refuse to acknowledge there is no hard proof that CAGW exists. So it is a ‘faith’ of sorts to them and they must show penance to their false god in order to both feeeel like they are faithful in some way meaningful way in their little minds and to show others that they are faithful. What better way could there be for them than to turn their lights off?
What I do NOT understand is why they do not just leave them off? Isn’t turning them back on a form of heresy?. If they really think CO2 is going to hurt the planet then WHY do they still use gasoline cars, take trips in kerosene airplanes and burn natural gas to stay warm? They must be miserably laden with guilt and self-hate doing those things? I pity them.
peter_ga says:
March 31, 2012 at 2:44 am
Obviously the developed nations rely on fossil fuel powered electricity. While accepting that the negative effects of co2 emissions are probably exagerated, I would prefer some sort of international effort be made to implement nuclear powered electricity generation in developing nations. Some sort of scheme should be set up so that for the cost of a fossil fuel powered station a nuclear power station be installed instead…..
_________________________–
The possibility is there but the %^$%# rent seeking power mongers that run the world are only interest in money and power over everyone else not in a better life for humanity.
The idea you are looking for is the self-contained thorium mini-reactor. A Research reactor was proven in 1954 and a reactor was operated for four years by Oak Ridge Nuclear Laboratory ( ORNL) from 1965 to 1969.
A bit of History on the reactors.
Alvin Weinberg never gave up hopes of convincing the government to continue pursuing Thorium
This is kind of an “Exhibition of lack-of-training that should have been received at home.”
Should we ALL have received this ‘training’ (NOT to unlike, oh, say, potty training) , we would ALL being turning out unused lights … but apparently not ALL received this training; speaking for myself, Mom ALWAYS reminded us to “turn off lights you’re not using”. This, 45 plus years ago …
Maybe ‘potty training’ needs to be re-addressed and see the light of ‘exposure’ in the public consciousness too? (Asked rhetorically and not in any way seriously … )
.