(Update: see the trend graph I found on Earth Hour popularity below.)
Otherwise, we celebrate living in North Korea:
The Earth Hour stunt wants people to turn off their lights from 8:30-9:30PM local time. I plan on having our lights on.
Bjørn Lomborg writes on his Facebook page:
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1.3 billion people in the world live without electricity. Celebrating darkness at Earth Hour sends the wrong message.
Unfortunately, Earth Hour tonight is nothing but an ineffective feel-good event. It does little for the climate in terms of reducing CO2 emissions and distracts us from the real problems and solutions — especially giving light to those in the darkness.
Read my new column in USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/03/27/bjorn-lomborg-earth-hour-electricity-column/6975265/
And watch a 2-minute video by the Copenhagen Consensus Center: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SVVADAX_cU
Lomborg: Earth Hour just a feel-good campaign
Instead, give light to the 1.3 billion people who still live without electricity.
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UPDATE: It seems sanity is starting to take hold and the global interest in Earth hour is falling off significantly. Here is the Alexa Internet traffic plot for this year plus 2013 and 2012. I’ve added the trend arrow aligned with the peaks of the Earth Hour events over those three years.
Source: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/earthhour.org
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An observation that signifies nothing. I looked out on my street in the UK. At 20:30, the street lights were on. Two houses were in darkness, the rest were lit up as normal. The two dark houses are the two with solar panels installed. interesting.
An hour later, one of the two has lit up.
Meanwhile, the stars shone on. and beautiful did they look
Hugh Winkler says:
March 29, 2014 at 3:53 pm
“See, the claim to legitimacy of wattsupwiththat is that it’s the place you go to find real inquiry and lucid analysis countering the groupthink. So it’s disappointing when it tales on the character, from time to time, of a grumpy all-purpose anti-green trolling operation.”
“Green” is the name of the Maoist parties in the West; also called watermelons. Maoist only because Stalin fell out of favor before they were founded.
Worked in sub-Saharan Africa for four years. Had electricity in Bobo-Dioulasso and Lastoursville. Otherwise, I lived in villages, huts, tents, daub and wattle hooches, all w/o power except gas lamps and Petromax stoves. Saw and experienced stuff in the bush most people will never see or do in a lifetime, but it was always a joy to get back to base where there was power.
Turn off your lights for Mother earth? Tell that to an African.
Environmental extremism is among the most murderously racist movements anywhere.
That is an alarming trend of loss of interest and knowledge about Earth Hour.
If that trend continues, our grandchildren won’t even know what Earth Hour looks like or is about.
Alarm set for 8:30. Got the laundry lined up. Will turn on the dishwasher and crank all the lights. My 1x per year hour of fun. My wife just shakes her head. 🙂
Hugh Winkler says:
March 29, 2014 at 3:53 pm
Sorry, my bad. I totally missed that your comment was lucid and a real inquiry.
EternalOptimist says:
March 29, 2014 at 2:25 pm
When I was a kid, we could not afford electricity. We were so poor we had to sit huddled around a candle for warmth.
When it got really cold, mother used to light it
grumpyoldmanuk says:
March 29, 2014 at 2:35 pm
EternalOptimist says:
March 29, 2014 at 2:25 pm
You Had a CANDLE? We had to make do with a half-sucked mint candy Mum found in the pockets of the washing she took in. And it had to last until Easter.
Candle? You had a match? Washing? You had a tub? I could go off on this, but the truth would probably be thought of as another joke.
It sends the message the environmental movement and globalwarmists want to send: that the peasant class (everyone who isn’t a wealthy liberal or liberal politician) is so unimportant that we should be treated as the peasant class is in North Korea. That is, no electricity, lights, travel, luxuries; that we should be allowed only what is necessary to produce what the ruling elite desires, and nothing more.
Is that too cynical? Nope. Not cynical enough.
I’ll shut of all my lights for two hours when Nobel pPeace prize winner Al Gore shuts off his for the same length of time. …but his lead by example has to be independently verified by an impartial observer.
No, really.
Ed MacAulay says:
March 29, 2014 at 5:49 pm
You should hope they are so fortunate. Much better than the alternate of them having to live Earth Hour every hour, all day long, every day.
Hugh Winkler – why can’t you just mind your own business and stop being a nag?
I FEEL so ripped off already that I never recycle anything anymore, save for metal and that we give to a local old guy who drops by in his old beater of a truck to collect it from us and that’s done solely to help him out financially. The rest is garbage and or we burn it. Don’t even have a “blue/green” box since the snow plough killed it off 5 winters ago.
Hugh Winkler. I’m not anti Green. I’m anti B.S. I’m anti leveraging ignorance to promote snake oil salesmen and wacked out ideals. I’m anti faux environmentalists who pull heart strings to promote political ideals which keep more people in the poor house. They ask us to violate the laws of supply and demand and become less efficient. Those people are the true anti greens.
By 8:30 this evening the temperature will be rapidly approaching freezing. Otherwise, I would go outside and imitate my pre-industrial ancestors, build a wood fire, and roast a slab or venison or split salmon. So I’ll save the wood for a warmer evening and plan an open-fire traditional raclette.
Inside the house tonight, lights and heat are on.
EternalOptimist says:
March 29, 2014 at 5:11 pm
An observation that signifies nothing. I looked out on my street in the UK. At 20:30, the street lights were on. Two houses were in darkness, the rest were lit up as normal. The two dark houses are the two with solar panels installed. interesting.
An hour later, one of the two has lit up.
Meanwhile, the stars shone on. and beautiful did they look
________________________
I hope that smarter people than me are working on new ways to light our cities and keep us safe while giving us back our views of the stars.
Lights on! Bring awareness to the millions who die from energy poverty every year.
grumpyoldmanuk says:
March 29, 2014 at 3:22 pm
Our mom did not have such connections but I know when to throw in the towel. Besides, I have to prepare all the electrical lights and appliances.
Have I missed something. No I didn’t turn off any light. But this effort to turn off lights is to prove what we can burn candles? Turning off lights to save the planet, is like throwing a sugar cube into Loch Ness to turn the water sweeter. What about the fridges, air conditioners, TVs car lights, it is stupid. Did Las Vegas turn off their lights?
did our part here in the Eastern US. Most of you should have been able to see the glow from wherever you are http://206.174.132.58/eh14/index2.html
TomL – beautiful! Looks warm and cozy too.
Oh of course, we in Australia are a day ahead of you. I looked out and saw that the street lights were still on. Not that we have many anyway.
It’s one thing for adults being foolish with Earth Hour. It’s all together another when children as young as 6 or 7 are being bombarded with Earth Hour propaganda at school then going home to their parents all giddy and exited about taking part.
@Patrick
…i agree…that’s the real tragedy in all this…the pollution of young minds with this nonsense.
Andy and Patrick I doubt if 6 & 7 year old kids would really understand, but they would if the lights were turned off before bedtime. Assuming most would be in bed by then.
WOW! Let’s all FLY to Singapore to celebrate Earth Hour. The stupidity… it burns.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2592288/Emma-Stone-boyfriend-Andrew-Garfield-stop-giggling-launch-Earth-Hour.html
“bushbunny says:
March 29, 2014 at 7:33 pm”
If only that were true. My friend in the UK explained that the whole school had an assembly about it on the Friday. All the usual propaganda was at hand for the students. While her child may not have fully understood the concept (At his age I fully understood the fact that there were millions of starving people in Africa. This was in the 70’s well before LiveAid), the propaganda was effective enough apparently and he stayed up the whole hour for it. I pitty the future of the world when blatant brainwashing of children is part of the education system.