This excellent essay on the Earth Hour event, to be held tonight at 8:30PM in every local time zone, is an eye-opener. Earth Hour is a testament to stupidity, in my opinion, and deserves to be mocked. North Korea reminds us what it is like to like in darkness, both politically, and in energy poverty.
UPDATE: In California, Earth Hour was a complete failure according to electricity use data.
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.
Without access to energy, life is brutal and short. – John Christy, director, UAH Atmospheric Science, Alabama State Climatologist
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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Amen to that.
“Earth Hour celebrates ignorance, poverty and backwardness. ”
Sums it up nicely.
I’ll just ignore it. This groupthink does not sway me either way.
On a second thought: How about an Earth week, or an Earth month?
I agree, Curious George. If this is really, really important, shouldn’t all electricity be shut off for a week or month? Where’s the dedication? Where’s the living up to one’s own beliefs? A month, yeah.
If they were really serious, they would turn off everybody’s power, whether they believed in the climate change fraud or not. Like they do in South Australia.
‘Earth Hour’ mentality parallels the extremist nonsense in the terrorist Una-bomber manifesto, same anti-human, anti-technology ant-business, and anti-civilisation brain rotting ideological swill.
It is a total disgrace that muck is being pushed on kids in school as dah right thunkin.
Spot on
“I like visiting nature but I don’t want to live there”
Just love that!!
I always ponder what an hour without power does to the birth rate. Is there a spike in December births of recent?
A pathetic example of virtue signalling. Turn on every light in the house and plan to bake a pizza or something in the oven at 8:30 Pm tonight. The way they calculate the success of the event is by the Utility Co reporting how much the electricity demand was reduced. If there is no reduction, then nobody much cares. Actually there is little reduction anyway…it is mainly people like Gov’t workers who are paid OT to go shut the lights off on public buildings for an hour.
Don’t know how it is in the US, but here in Norway, this night, this very night, is the change to summertime. So…one hour is lost, and that is my Earth Hour. Good riddance!
No worries on my part. I’ll be enjoying what the nuclear power plant 30 miles from my house brings to me and my family.
The best part is I actually need fewer electrons than I used to due to the LED lighting and more energy efficient appliances, heating and cooling units and windows and doors I’ve put in over the past few years.
Hear, hear
We celebrated it with all our lights on, inside and out. A toast to all those who gave us wonderful electricity and the blessings we enjoy as a result.
Annie in Australia.
I now celebrate Earth Hour all year round by leaving everything turned on. Maybe I can find a couple of 500W halogen spots to shine at the sky , just to show willing.
These dumb shits don’t realise they are now walking backwards by pissing everyone off.
It was a dud around where I live.
Pretty much sums it up! Very well put, Ross.
The light is a symbol for hope, life and knowledge. Therefore, it should remain that way! Lights on! A protest against globalism and ignorant leftism.
Yep! Now to get this message out there in a way that resonates with the millennials. Showing my age….and, maybe….wisdom?
Yep! Now to get this message out there in a way that resonates with the millennials. Showing my age….and, maybe….wisdom?
Shut off cell towers and the internet for an hour.
A very reasonable proposal, but these bigot watermelons will tar and feather you if you just try to take them away their dearest toys.
There’s a reason the Dark Ages are called the Dark ages, and there’s a reason why The Enlightenment is called The Enlightenment.
Actually, the term “Dark Ages” was a slur against the Middle Ages, coined at a time when it was thought that ancient Greece and Rome were much more enlightened. It symbolizes the intellectual and cultural decline that was believed to have occurred in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. Scholars don’t use the term anymore, because it is misleading and inaccurate. One inteesting thing to note: slavery had been virtually elminated by the end of the “Dark Ages,” only to be revived during the Renaissance in its fascination with the ancient Greeks and Romans. There are many other advances that were made in the Middle Ages. It’s very interesting to read about, and there are lots of books about the subject.
Monna…your response did not seem accurate to me, so I did a little research. The Wiki definition of Dark Ages supports your story. The Encyclopedia Britannica however, has a little different story, although it alludes to your PC version when it says: “The term “Dark Ages” is now rarely used by historians because of the value judgment it implies.” Give me a break!
By any definition, these where Dark TImes form 500-800 AD. The climate was cold. There was little urban life or culture. Education was scarce. War was common. Life was very hard and short from all accounts, which are few and far between, because so few could read or write. The term Dark Ages is quite appropriate for the time.
I have never equated the Dark Ages with the MIddle Ages. They used to be 2 different time periods. Now we are supposed to equate the two so that the Dark Ages don’t feel so bad? Monty Python, hilarious because of its complete absurdity, is starting to look like a modern day documentary.
jclarke341: I did the same thing when I read the “dark ages” were not dark. Seems it’s a PC rewrite of history.
Dark Ages where I come from was “after the Romans cleared out”, That meant not a lot being written down or carved in stone. No one scratching rude jokes in Latin on the back of ceramic tiles. Plenty of recycling activity going on. Roman bits & pieces being re-used in building work for a thousand years afterwards.
The Dark Ages was the period after the positive enlightening and civilising phase of Hellenic Greek and Roman Empires dissipated and were temporarily forgotten and lost.
The ‘Renaissance’ was the rediscovery of Greek and Roman books (“Classics”), plus records, science, philosopy, and technologies, stored in old Latin language libraries, which the new printing-press tech allowed translations and redistribution of these “Widdom” books, into English, German, French, etc., which bought back maturing civilisations to much of Europe again.
If the Dark Age’s relative destruction of civilisation never occurred we could have had the industrial revolution 500 years earlier than it happened, then as the CO2 hysteria ramped, we would have slid into the little-ice-age instead.
Human civilusation and its CO2 production would have been blamed for every case of famine, phenomia and frostbite, instead.
omg … Pneumonia.
WX, phenomia is OK too, whatever it is, as it’s encompassed by, and is a subset of “everything”.
Standard operating procedure here for a few years already , just to make a statement to this green nonsens. At exactly 20:30 locaI time the flood lights will turn on around the house for an hour. I have programmed an event for it in my home control system for the next couple of years.
An eloquent and perspicacious essay, sir! You have my vote 100% on everything you said. Life without cheap energy is a short and brutal affair. Coal, oil & gas freed our ancestors from a subsistence agrarian economy only a few generations ago and powered the development of the economic miracle that led to the society everybody takes for granted today.
Nicely put.
I don’t switch on lights for the sake of it but I have a bunch of high energy jobs to do during that hour. A casserole in the oven, some washing (clothes and dishes), a bit of hoovering and topped off with a power shower. All those activities need the lights on legitimately and make more of a difference in the records.
My aunt was born in the early 1900’s and lived to be close to 100 years old. When asked about the most remarkable change during her life, she stated that it was the invention and introduction of electric lights.
Will do. Thanks
And maybe a fan and extra PC turned on too
Keeping people in the dark about things is the MO of tyrants and dictators. How symbolic is it for those that want to control our lives to use this very idea to promote their beliefs.
Don’t forget the (relatively) recent high resolution Korea photo from https://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/04/10/a-new-high-resolution-look-at-north-korea-where-it-is-earth-hour-every-night/
Yabut, “Earth-friendly” candles are ok. It’s all about feewings.
That’s today?
Wow, in past years it would have been plastered all over my Google News page.
I guess even the virtue signalers have moved on to more relevant causes.
LOL, I love that idea. Bravo.
I wonder how many hospital admissions there were for people walking into doors, falling down stairs, fires from people using candles during earth hour….how many burglars took advantage of earth hour by using night vision goggles to perform robberies and so forth….
The insidious nature of the ‘minority groups’ society pays far too much heed to.
I have every sympathy for minority groups, however Western society is largely based on democracy, in other words, the majority decision is sacrosanct.
Minority groups seeking to undermine that democratic process, other than via the ballot box, are a threat to the democratic process.
That might suggest that we sceptics, as a minority group, fall into that category, but we do noting more than talk to political and scientific organisations/individuals to change the perception of AGW. We don’t march, fight, demonstrate, threaten or coerce anyone to impose our will.
Ours is an entirely peaceful, intellectual (except in my case) and scientifically motivated assembly of largely credible, curious individuals who probably never accept anything without investigation.
Earth day is a demonstration of irrational, genetically programmed, fear of the unknown perpetrated by ignorant people (who shouldn’t be ignorant being that they are largely well educated and prosperous) whose preferred operational mode is to follow the herd. Largely because they are too complacent and lazy to think for themselves.
Capitalism is a natural human condition and its inherent characteristics of freedom of speech and freedom to trade has brought mankind to its pinnacle of evolution (so far).
Socialism is an unnatural political construct that encourages the herd mentality. Indeed, it relies on it and disguises it as democracy by organising minority groups into political movements, then tenuously linking them under the banner of the oppressed minority. In reality, few groups share anything in common and under any other circumstances would be at war with each other.
Earth day is a globalised manifestation of ignorance and fear harking back to the dark ages when man, ironically, worshipped the Sun and relied on superstition to control tribes. Socialism encourages ignorance and fear.
The NY power scandal…
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/nyregion/howe-cuomo-albany-percoco-corruption.html
Scandal update from last week:
https://www.courthousenews.com/second-circuit-oks-pipeline-to-new-york-gas-plant/
Meanwhile “Earth Day” (April 22) asks people to “Imagine a world without plastic pollution”. Plastic is now the enemy for Greenies, not “carbon”. What next, steel? Hey, I know, rust! Because it’s iron oxide, so can be called “iron pollution”.
I am a fierce climate skeptic but the simply horrible plastic that washes up on the east coast of Barbados, where I live,makes me weep. It’s visually disturbing but it’s breakdown into micro particles worries me more. If the climate fanatics could just direct their energies towards degradable plastics or recycling everyone would win.
Plastic disposal is a complex problem. But biodegradables have their own issues, and there is limited use for recycled plastic. There are no easy answers.
Why should it’s break down into micro particles bother you?
That just makes it easier for those microbes that thrive on hydro-carbons to finish consuming them.
Remember when USA cities, yes, even New York city used to dump its garbage off barges into the ocean? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrugoT8N5cE
There is no justification for allowing garbage/plastics to be dumped in the ocean. Anyone civilized who has seen massive amounts of garbage and plastics in the ocean is unanimous on this issue. Some countries and Nations’ still do dump garbage at sea, which is just criminal. Unless you crap in your own living room, and some countries still do that do. That is why they are called sh!thole countries.
+1000
The warmunists are emitionally conflicted. They demonize Self Propelled ruminants that produce natural fibres, dairy products, meat, hides for clothing and footwear Vs Oil Based fibres, pleather and plastic footwear.
Ruminants nourished by the Sunshine, Rainfall, Grassland Cycle converting grass and water to all the By-Products that have nurtured mankind for thousands of years.
They even demonize the use of honey that makes money subsidizing Pollination of the alleged Plant Based Diet that is to nourish 7 Billion + human’s.
Plastic pollution will grow under their totalitarian decrees, of their Cruelty Free Vision of the Planet. The Global Grassland Inventory will be left to rot and decay emitting methane Fairy Farts and Co2. Furthermore increased Grassland Wildfires emitting Black Carbon.
“Imagine a world without plastic pollution” What? Are people now going to stop indiscrimitaly throwing garbage on the ground? The amount of fast food and cigarette wrapper garbage constantly on the ground is unreal.
Rust is the oxygen pollution of good and pure iron. Let the fanatics among us oppose the destruction of all our good works by declaring Iron Day when we remember the great benefits wrought, literally, by the development of iron products. Our hero is Iron Man.
Let all celebrate by protesting the deleterious and corrosive effects of oxygen, the evil gas, that destroys all that it touches. Protesting in the most personal way, participants are encouraged to stop breathing for an hour. (Practicing is not recommended.)
“Long live Bog Iron” ban those Oxygen Furnaces melting our Recycled materials, Long live the hammer and anvil.
Much of Puerto Rice has been enjoying “Earth Hour” for the past 6 months or so. They don’t seem to like it much.
Should be Puerto Rico. Is there an edit feature here?
No. Around herr, the old adage of “proofread twice, and click once” rules.
“Should be Puerto Rico. Is there an edit feature here?”
Well, I’m sure the people in Puerto Rice aren’t having it too easy either.