Video follows.
On the evening of Saturday, March 23, people around the world are being asked by activists to switch off the lights for an hour to observe “Earth Hour”. Bjørn Lomborg says this gesture will do little to help the planet, and gives people the wrong impression about how to address climate issues. (See related WUWT post here)
Earth Hour is not the answer. Taken to its logical conclusion, if switching the lights off for one hour is a good idea, why not for all the other 8,759 hours of the year?
Electricity, and affordable, plentiful energy, is the lifeblood of modern civilization and prosperity. If you do switch off the lights, do it in solidarity with the 1.3 billion people in the world who live in cold and misery because they lack access to electricity. Do it to celebrate the benefits of innovation and technology.
Electricity has been a boon for humanity. And the cozy candles that many participants will light, which seem so natural and environmentally friendly, are still fossil fuels (paraffin comes from petroleum) —and almost 100 times less efficient than incandescent light bulbs.
Fundamentally, cutting emissions in the short run is no easy task. Today, green energy is too costly to be a viable solution. Real breakthroughs in energy technology will only come with more investment in research and development.
Read the full commentary on Slate . Translations in 6 languages are distributed worldwide and available at Project Syndicate http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/earth-hour-s-counterproductive-symbolism-by-bj-rn-lomborg
Here is the official Earth Hour video. Note the use of candles along with other imagery, designed to tug at emotional heartstrings.
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If they want me to participate in “Earth Hour” they better start planning it when the college basketball tournament isn’t on. The opening weekend in “March Madness” is the best weekend in college basketball. Right now I’m watching VCU losing to Michigan and I’m seeing why Michigan was ranked so highly earlier in the year.
Candles? You mean those prehistoric purveyors of paraffin pollution? Yeah, we have a few, but they’re just for emergencies, you know, those rare occasions when the real lighting is temporarily unavailable.
Wait, you’re saying some people will deliberately choose to darken and pollute their dwellings for some nebulous “cause”? My, that certainly sounds…er…quaint.
Um, they’re not by chance residents of an…institution, are they?
Stonyground:
I live in the UK and I’m old enough to remember the power cuts of the nineteen-seventies that were caused by striking coal miners. I worked at an agricultural engineering garage that had a petrol station. During the power cuts we had to insert a handle into the pumps and raise the fuel by winding, it was very slow but it got the job done. In our accounts office, invoices were produced on manual typewriters. At home we could boil water on a paraffin stove, we had torches, candles and stable lamps for light. We had open fires for heat, luckily for us we had access to logs.
How well will we fare if government incompetence leads us to power cuts in the twenty-first century? Do modern petrol pumps have manual handles? What about cash machines? Traffic lights? Barriers at level crossings? In my current workplace, almost nothing will get done without computers. At home we have a small genny which will help us to get by. A generation ago my parents could never have afforded a genny. The thing is, we can, and at work, if power cuts become a real problem, it is pretty likely that we would install one. Still, I suppose the problem of CO2 emmissions is a bit moot considering that it is late March and it is still snowing.
Skiphil says:
March 23, 2013 at 9:14 am
“Tell the bozos no more Rock n Roll or any other uses of electricity in the creation of music….. Rap and Hip Hop, all musical styles of the past 50 years which utilize electronic sound amplification, mixing, etc. ”
yuk-yuk. Not to mention the limos and jets to get there.
I can strum my Martin in the dark. I won’t though. Every light I own will be on.
Fight the power by using power!
That video of linking visuals and emotions is the perfect example of where science is going in education in order to involve the senses. It makes the belief memorable and thus influential even if it is patently false. Oberlin Prof David Orr calls it fostering Biophilia. He says the reason for all this “hands-on science” emphasis that we see most recently in the New Common Core Next Generation Science Standards and especially in the planned assessments is to link “sensory knowledge with the emotions that make us love and sometimes fight.”
I explained it here http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/targeting-how-students-see-the-world-so-they-will-feel-an-irresistiable-compulsion-for-change/ using actual documents from Education for Sustainability degree programs. With syllabi chock full of readings of disproven theories being taught to future teachers anyway.
So they will keep hyping CAGW and Earth Hours whatever the actual facts or likely consequences.
“Bob Diaz says:
March 23, 2013 at 10:00 am”
I would not say idiots, I would say poor. Many NZ’ers die in winter due to energy poverty and resorting to using candles.
I am planning to fire up my charcoal fueled Weber and sear some formerly flatulent beefsteaks. MMM. So my outdoor lighting will be on as well.
Be interesting to watch what happens in the green state of Calif: http://www.caiso.com/outlook/SystemStatus.html. This plots projected and actual electricity generation daily.
Snowing all day here with a bitter wind, in East Anglia. I’m a pensioner living alone and had to shovel the snow off my steps this morning, to get out to buy some logs. I’ve been without oil for several days due to miscommunications – luckily my power didn’t go off so I could use my electric blanket upstairs, and heat food and kettles. Making a fire and keeping it going sufficiently to heat the place in this weather is a pretty full time job.
I was glad I have a car to fetch logs in this emergency. I was very glad indeed the oil man made a special trip our for me at midday, and very grateful to a local handyman who came in the bitter snow and cold, to bleed my outside boiler when I couldn’t get it to fire.
Earth hour? – sit in the dark and strain my eyes with a candle? You have to be joking. I lived like that in my youth on various Mediterranean islands – been there, done that. In this country, I wouldn’t last long without heat and power, given my history of respiratory disease.
If the Earth Hour proponents are really serious why don’t they follow it to the logical conclusions.
For one hour shut down all power generating plants, shut down wind farms [of course the solar is shut down automatically at sunset], no power to subways, goevrnment buildings, no phones [landline or cellular], no emergency hospital power allowed, no tweeting for the twits, no Internet, etc. The list would be very long.
Sheesh!
Sod that, there’s snow on the ground outside and I’m going to use what there is before they K.O. the energy supply completely.
@ur momisuglyRon Richey – It’s under March 13th in the sidebar calendar.
There are currently 35,000 houses in Northern Ireland, 4,000 in North Wales and at least 18,000 houses in Scotland “celebrating” Earth Hour – their power has been cut due to the heavy snow and high winds across the UK.
Cars and vans have been completely buried by snow throughout the UK, this is snow which our children were promised “they would never know what snow is like!”.
Well they know now!!
Dear Anthony
I beg leave to inform you that Alder Towers proudly flies the Sceptic Flag tonight and is Illuminated like a Christmas Tree. Let it cast the Probing Light of Truth and Wisdom into the Darkness of Superstition and Mindless Alarm.
Long Live Rationality!
I Remain, Sir, Your Humble Servant
LA
Anthony, surely the green opera house was for St Patricks Day, the only green that matters.
Although the headline picture shows an embarrassingly grren Sydney Opera House being involved in the worst tokenism, some of us in Sydney celebrated the Hour Of Power. I turned on all lights and appliances in honour of the advantages such devices reap for modern society and as a single finger raised in salute against the green fascists whom wish to deliver us back to the 19th century.
A fine BBQ was had with local Porterhouse steaks and imported chorizos and bourbon.
If you look at the EH website this morning only 6919 of 23 million supported it so it was really effective, eh?
Amos McLean @ur momisugly 12:45 pm:
It is very cold here and we have had snow showers; however, our roads here in our part of North Yorkshire are clear (and dry for once too). I think there is plenty of snow not far away, in the Dales and along the A66 and into Cumbria where it is really bad. The A595 is where there are cars buried in snow drifts.
We are celebrating warmth and light indoors but mindful of those who have lost power in this cold weather.
Programs like this are a part of ongoing research using MSM to perfect a mass mind manipulation system a la Pied Piper,…or if you like…the 666 beast…
Best of all, we did not notice, at all, that yesterday was Earth Hour and just carried on regardless. There was little press coverage here, as people have tired of that gimmick and passed on to the new curiosities. I would say that Earth Hour is now stone dead as it shows no sign of life. Not even mouth-to-mouth resuscitation by the Greenies will revive it
“Using the equivalent of one and one-half planets!” What’s the problem? Latest from NASA is there’s trillions of planets out there. We got spares. 😉
But they fully lost me with the fellow who’s gonna ‘cross-dress’ for a week at his “university” – that’s pretty specifically forbidden in the Bible, sorry. Definitely wouldn’t want to have a hand in encouraging THAT!…. 😉
Timely post though, as I would have forgotten I intended to open all the curtains and turn on every light in the house from 8:30 to 9:30 (and maybe a flashlight or two) (and maybe candles, too! {For the ’emotional appeal’, and general ambience})>
Y’know, to Celebrate, with Gratitude, our wonderful world and Blessings, and the ( – sorry, Atheists – ) Help we’ve gotten to carry ourselves as far as we have, technologically – despite all our challenges, which some days seem endless….
Tom Trevor says:
March 23, 2013 at 7:10 am
Gads that earth hour video is so stupid, I couldn’t watch it all. Concerts performed with lights and electric guitars to bring awareness to turning off light, and even more meaning less gestures like free yoga classes if 500 people support Earth Hour, or even worse dying his beard green for 10,000 people supporting it.
Well, WUWT community I have really symbolic and stupid challenge for you, I’ll donate $5 to charity if 5000 people donate $5 to me. Come on I will if you will, it is only $5 you can afford it.
OK Tommie. I’ll bite. All you need to do is to convince 4999 other souls to give you the 0.1 cent each and you should be set. BTW what charity are we donating to? I’ll need that for the 1040 form thingie.
The power outage stories remind me of a funny one. Years ago I lived in the mountains of Tennessee and had a terrific wind storm that blew limbs down on power lines for miles around. I was chilling out cooking for folks on the big coleman stove and just having a good old time. my neighbor across the street decided he needed to go get some dry ice or he was going to lose all the food in his big chest freezer. (this was after about 4 days without power) So the neighbor treks all the way to Johnson City (30 miles) and got some dry ice in a cooler. He brings it back and opens the lid of the freezer and notices that the light was on.
“Nicholas Tesdorf says:
March 23, 2013 at 3:37 pm
Earth Hour and just carried on regardless. There was little press coverage here, as people have tired of that gimmick and passed on to the new curiosities.”
Pretty much the same here aswell. Very little media coverage here, Compared with previous events. We never do take part in the tripe. Could Never understand those people who would happily pull the switch on electricity for an hour, while stinking out their homes with lighted candles or have big outdoor bonfires to celebrate it. Seems to be counter productive to save Gaia from the AGW/CC or ‘evil’ air pollution. 🙂
Of course the local WWF were still promoting it.
http://www.wwf.org.nz/earth_hour/
“Cars and vans have been completely buried by snow throughout the UK, this is snow which our children were promised “they would never know what snow is like!”.”
Don’t worry. The fanatics on a UK forum I frequent are busy telling everyone who questions the ‘consensus’ that the UK is freezing and buried in snow because of Global Warming.
Personally I’ll be glad to see the end of the Global Warming this winter, here in Canada we must have three times as much Global Warming piled up in our yard as we did last year (or any other year since I moved here in the mid-2000s).
Just a follow up.
I see yahoo.nz. Has a poll on did you take part in Earth Hour.
So far 6% said yes.they switch the lights off for an hour. 42% said No they forgot about it and 44% said Think it was pointless.
So that is indeed a big drop in support for it here. 🙂
I love the Earth, I love the forests, I love the Oceans. I love all life forms, I have always cared and left as small an imprint as possible. I don’t like Earth hour, I don’t like liars, data fudges, crooked scientist, blind and lousy politicians and the mindless watermelon class. I do like WUWT and the the other warriors of science and that includes all skeptics.
Tonight my home is a beacon of truth, light and heat!
I question the “1.3 billion” without access to power.
Quoting TonyfromOz over on joannenova.com.au replying to a comment of mine:
“Or in China, hundreds of millions of people playing the game every day, as barely one home in five to seven has electrical power connected to it, with any power, let alone a constant and regulated supply. In the major cities, well yes, some do have power, but elsewhere, nothing.
There’s where that crock, per capita emissions falls down. In China, barely 9% of all generated power goes to the Residential sector, Australia 20/21%.
That residential power comparison sees China power (to residential) only 9.1 times Australia’s, while China’s population is 61 times Australia’s.
It’s not that they use less power. It’s because most of them have no electrical power.
The green solution is to stop them having that access to power, and then, on top of that, to send us back to living without it also.
The same also applies in India as well.”
So, if Tony’s most optimistic figure is correct, doesn’t that mean over 1 billion people in China alone who do Earth Hour 24/7/365 ?
If the 1.3 billion was correct, it would represent real progress. Unfortunately, it can’t be correct.