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.
I’m going to do my level best to save Ontario from having to pay the US and Quebec to take our excess unused energy. Unfortunately I can’t run my furnace and air-conditioner at the same time, and I fear my effort will not be enough.
And I’ll be marking student essays 🙁 Pretty hard to do that by candlelight.
Our family ignored the first global earth hour. Our next door neighbours kindly knocked on our door during the ‘celebration’ to remind us that our lights should be off. My husband, showing unusual restraint, did not reply in kind with another directive that uses the word ‘off’.
Something has happened between 2008 and today. This year the dimwits next door are not sitting in the dim.
Earth Hour? Let’s get our priorities straight … not during the Final Four !
Checking the electricity operator website here in Ontario – power usage has actually spiked up!
Ontario electricity usage is currently 500 MW above forecast! Keep those ovens cleanin!
“You CAN’T ‘overuse’ energy.”
This, and similar comments upthread, imply a certainty that fossil fuels (humanity’s main source of energy) are an infinite resource. I suppose this must be ‘settled science.’
I despise westerners who have the luxury of indulging in such naive celebrations like Earth Day. Until these people understand what life is like without electricity, they will never understand. I challenge every one of them to go one week (not one hour) without electricity. They’ll then understand. And they’ll probably then start thinking of what millions of people in poverty stricken Africa must endure… not over a week… over their whole life.
I forgot about this non-event until this reminded me, so I had to dash around the house turning on the lights – with special emphasis on the outside lights.
I was going to say that it is an upper middle class phenomenom, until I saw this link to the australian News site.
Should do wonders for undercover activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Local ad man Todd Sampson who started this game in 2007 seems to be getting cold feet.
“I’d probably say just to remind everyone to remain vigilant,” a spokesman said.
Police seem to think so too…..
“I despise westerners who have the luxury of indulging in such naive celebrations like Earth Day”
Indeed? If I think of the energy deficient communites around the world, the Western attitudes that I find most distasteful are those upthread that celebrate progligacy and spite – those that switch all the lights on when they don’t need to.
Did you know that 5200 cities and towns in 130 countries participated last year, including a great many poorer communities for whom blackouts are a daily or weekly occurence?
http://www.altiusdirectory.com/Society/earth-hour-participating-countries.html
In commnities where energy supply is not a constantly running faucet, Earth Hour has more immediate significance than for energy-rich societies. You apprehension nmay be misplaced. I wonder, have you spoken to anyone from these parts? Or have you read comments from the people you refer to?
We in the most developed countries certainly lead far more luxurous lifestyles than most other people in the world. In the comfort of our cosseted lives, it is as easy to condescend as it is to shed crocodile tears. The most common abuse of our vaunted position is to use conditions of the poor and disenfranchised elsewhere in the world as a political football. Soundbytes in blog comments, of any variety, rarely do justice to the realities.
So much hate in this thread.
To paraphrase Dan Aykroyd,
“Sasha, you [SNIP: Way too abusive. Let’s not do this. -REP]..”
Dr. McKitrick is quite correct. Until abundant energy became available the abuses of women and children, both in an out of the workplace, were common. Only through the civilizing influence and progress made achievable by the widespread implementation of electrical power has it been possible to free man (and woman) kind to pursue happiness. But if you knew anything about history – at all – you’d already know that.
No, he’s just being consistent. The organisers never pretended that turning off the lights around the world would have a meaningful impact on actual CO2 emissions. It has always been about endorsing and sending a message, specifically to mitigate CO2 emissions, although the event has a broader symbolism.
Fun that BBC had no mention of Earth hour on theitr website. The CBC did but they are gettting a rollicking in the comments. I had my lights on which is a crying shame. Jupiter, the crescent moon and venus were specacular tonight. Would have been good to get the telescopre out tonight. As usual my neighbours had theit outside lights on at full blast. I suppose as a cheap skate I turn off all my lights if I can, remember in England they turned off all the street ligths at 11pm. I am conflicted between the frugality of my upbringing (don’t waste food, electricity) and the sheer abundance of cheep power and food.
Cheers Mark
barry says: March 31, 2012 at 6:22 pm
“You CAN’T ‘overuse’ energy.”
This, and similar comments upthread, imply a certainty that fossil fuels (humanity’s main source of energy) are an infinite resource. I suppose this must be ‘settled science.’
—————-
The power that lights my light bulbs come from hydro. Turning on extra lights means I can turn down the electric heater and the result is the same amount of energy used.
When the site c damn in B.C. gets built, it will repurpose the energy that currently just gets dumped to see and instead will power an additional 450,000 homes.
There are thousands of forest fires in my province alone each year, converting enormous amounts of energy into waste heat, if my government doesn’t want me to use fossil fuel, I can cut down some of the trees in my yard and burn them, and I will do that if the carbon taxes that I currently pay gets too much higher.
“barry says:
March 31, 2012 at 8:52 pm”
Yes, symbolics. And sym just left town. But the French can get away with turning the lights off on the Eiffle tower for just 5 minutes, it’s a security issue you see.
@ur momisugly _Jim says: March 31, 2012 at 1:36 pm Here is one reference for examining transmission line loss in the transmission grid. There is a pdf file linked at the end of the first paragraph. This grid operator uses a 12% factor which is non-trivial.
http://www.aeso.ca/transmission/281.html
“barry says:
March 31, 2012 at 7:41 pm
I wonder, have you spoken to anyone from these parts? Or have you read comments from the people you refer to?”
Yes, *I* have. I have family in some of these parts too and know they would dearly love to have a cheap and reliable source of power, at the flick of a switch. Still their state run power utilities charge them fees to be connected to the grid. One striking and highly contratsing image that remains with me is that in some remote areas in Ethiopia for instance, where subsistance farmers live in poverty, brand new shinly galvanised power transmission masts installed on farmers land take power away from where it is made to where it is consumed in the city. However, power is the least of these peoples worries when basic daily food is now beyond the reach of many thanks to inflation and corruption.
But it’s OK! We’ve turned our lights off in support of emissions reductions, that’ll fix things up in Africa.
/sarc on
Well done Barry.
/sarc off
a freestyler @http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/03/31/earth-hour-2012-a-dissent-and-poll/#comment-940303 “Beverage alert. Click below with an empty mouth. ”
http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/the_one_that_didnt_get_published
source: http://therealrevo.com/blog/?page_id=70338&cpage=1#comment-95630
Barry,
TS is CEO of Leo Burnett, hails from Canada, is a darling of our left leaning ABC, is an accomplished public speaker and knows how to push the right buttons.
He seems to be backing off from an idea that has gone out of control.
Remember he did say…
……whatever that means.
In Portugal, more and more people are switching to “petrol lamps”, because they cannot afford electricity, which has one of the highest costs in Europe, despite the small wages. All this is due to the “Green Economy” and alternative energy schemes. For these poor people, Earth Hour is everday:
http://ecotretas.blogspot.pt/2012/03/candeeiros-petroleo.html
Ecotretas
barry says:
March 31, 2012 at 7:41 pm
“In commnities where energy supply is not a constantly running faucet, Earth Hour has more immediate significance than for energy-rich societies. You apprehension nmay be misplaced. I wonder, have you spoken to anyone from these parts? Or have you read comments from the people you refer to?
We in the most developed countries certainly lead far more luxurous lifestyles than most other people in the world. In the comfort of our cosseted lives, it is as easy to condescend as it is to shed crocodile tears. The most common abuse of our vaunted position is to use conditions of the poor and disenfranchised elsewhere in the world as a political football. Soundbytes in blog comments, of any variety, rarely do justice to the realities.
So much hate in this thread.”
barry there is no hate that you encounter here in the thread, you are interpreting it so (to feel good in your understanding?). You are shedding crocodile tears.
As skeptic to CAGW one has to face all kind of false accusations, insults and moral superiority assumptions and this is again one of those.
We do not simply point our skeptical point of views to the theory of human cause catastrophal warming with the certain risk of being called deniers, fossil fuel shills, just because we want to enjoy our luxury lifestyle ignoring the others. It is not a luxury lifestyle, but a hard won through generations work life improvement that we do not want to be thrown away by green culture. We want to share it with all humans (of course who are interested in it).
barry it is not because western use of energy that other people in the world do not get their share & have access to energy supply. This is exactly the point that many people in this thread make that you so stubbornly refuse to see.
My home (empty) in Canada used 118 kw for the month of March. I have blogged this on every warmist site I can find and challanged other warmists to match my use (without telling them I am not there). Do you think any of them has? No.
I spent earth hour with 3 computers running and the lights, on monitoring servers at work which is 30 miles away as they work through a complex batch processing task that runs for 40+ hours.
By working from home, I avoided driving 30 miles round trip and using the same electrical energy at work (and losing a lot of sleep and living on junk food out of the vending machines). Instead I got to eat home cooked food, and nap in between my duties.
I think progress and electrical power are pretty good deals. I’ve lived in cabins and pickup campers with no heat in temperatures well below freezing, spent time totally off the power grid, and had to chop wood for heat. Pump water from a hand pump out in the yard before you could wash or cook, walk miles to go to school or work when I was broke and could not afford gasoline or bus travel. (1970’s during high gas prices and steep inflation).
I agree earth hour is a useless symbolic gesture by folks who are more concerned about appearances than realities. The best way to cut excessive birth rates, starvation and short lifespans, in the 3rd world is give them a reliable energy infrastructure at affordable prices.
Larry
Barry,
It is your right, I suppose, to serve as an unpaid muppet for two giant corporations, WWF and Fairfax, who together actually own Earth Hour(TM) and all proceeds for the event. But their teams of lawyers are very vigilant about enforcing their rights too, so you might want to be careful with staying between the lines and with how you proceed with your enthusiasm. Make sure you have their approval.
You said, “It has always been about endorsing and sending a message, specifically to mitigate CO2 emissions, although the event has a broader symbolism.”
Bullocks, Barry; the latest poltroon in charge of the UN, Ban Kimoon, just lied about Earth Hour(TM) being a show of solidarity for people who don’t have sufficient electricity. A few others here mewled about this just being another communal festival-like event that’s harmless and fun. Such things are signs of losing and trying to “save face.”
Also,there is no “broader symbolism” beyond the marketing and PR acts which are designed to accustom people to supply free labour and publicity from top-town diktats while pretending it’s a “grassroots” action. Fortunately, Earth Hour(TM) is a flop and perhaps the owners will find other ways of wasteing their money on their corporate cronies and sycophants. And we, the real grassroots pains-in-the-arse will be here ready to pounce again.