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
Of course, to heir is human; to forgive, devine.
We already have fire detectors fitted to most homes these days and i can see a bright (dark) future in light-globe detectors.
right on
Alas, I will be on a plane for earth hour. I won’t be able to perform my annual “light my house up like a Christmas Tree” ritual. (I also crank up the washer and dryer).
Earth Hour is Orwellian madness to suck in old hippies, their most useful idiots.
Hey Linda, I’m an old hippie! And this old hippie will be lighting up the yard, house, appliances–hee hee
I am really sad that I cannot celebrate Earth Hour the way that I did a few years ago. Back then my family and I flew a thousand miles to Florida for the weekend. During Earth Hour we went to a really nice steakhouse and ate and drank to excess.
Tonight my contribution will be limited to cooking a lot of stuff for the holidays next weekend. I know it is not as much as I did back then, but it is something.
Hoppy April Fools’ Day.
I put these quotes up under another post but they do seem to fit here also.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/03/22/kim-stanley-robinson-empty-half-the-earth-to-save-the-planet/#comment-2772260
If North America suffers a Volcanic Ash Umbrella or Nuclear Winter, Team Wynntarioweowe just destroyed the 2 Chimneys on North America’s largest Coal Power Plant with 2 new Nox SCR Scrubbers just behind the Chimney on the left of the picture. To add folly to a potential Perfect Storm, Line 4 of the Energy East natural gas pipeline system, TCP’s newest exploded in July 1995 from a Pre-Existing Crack, weakening Line 3 which also exploded burning the Compressor Station. 22 year’s later these are the pipe-dreams that were the Energy East Conn/Version Proposal. Imagine this happening in Heating Season with 24.5 Million people living East of the Manitoba Border. 28% of Ontario electricity is generated by Gas C0-Generation.
The Ontario Liberal government demonstrated a Symbolic Act of Stupidity; ie: Compare the 2 Video Pictures of those people of Influence having Ringside Stand-Up Comedy Positions, viewing the Demolition Blast with nary a Dust Mask nor Haz-Mat Suit for PPE, Personal Protection Equipment! Then they climbed into their cars covered in Fly Ash with its Heavy Metals questioning their mindlessness at their madness of a Media Moment.
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/02/28/twin-chimneys-demolished-at-former-nanticoke-generating-station.html
OPG Nanticoke Smokestacks fall down on Feb. 28, 2018
That’s what they did in South Australia, now they have the world’s most expensive power.
The weather forecast for earth hour here in Canada’s capital city is -3C/26F and cloudy. No chance I’m turning off anything for this goofy stunt.
I figure an hour of no lights is the only time a backyard astronomer can see anything in some areas of heavy “light pollution”. Otherwise, never mind.
Really clear nights with low humidity.
12” Mead LX-200
I am amazed how blinkered so many commentators are on this site. You simply cannot look at the big picture which is why so many people ignore your perspective. Time to get real my friends: https://wp.me/p8BEgP-F5
First, remove the log from your own eye. Then, remove the Warmunist goggles, and stop guzzling the Klimate Koolade. Then, maybe you will finally “get real”.
Join the club, then — most everybody here ignores your illusions.
Interesting that you talk about illusions here … the pot calling the kettle black.
We certainly can and do look at the big picture. Most of us looked much wider than you appear to have and have not become participants in groupthink as so many believers have. We research, many have science degrees, and your side has what? A religious fervor and an intense dislike of anyone who disagrees. IE not a bit of science whatsoever.
Please show me some positive trends in terms of mankind’s impact on the environment. Pumping out CO2 is good and the planet is benefitting? Yeah, live in any city, evaluate the health impacts of CO2 pollution on the human organism and then get back to me. You people make me laugh some of your ‘scientific’ arguments are so imbecilic
Ivan, why don’t you tell us what are these health impacts of CO2 pollution on the human organism? Then we can laugh at you some more.
Sorry, Ivan. I can’t see the picture with the lights turned off.
In your head GD … it’s all in your head. Maybe a few narcotics might help to expand your mind a bit. It really needs it.
So drugs are required to comprehend your “big picture” in the dark and conclude it’s a good thing?
Been there, done that back in the early ’70s. Then I got delivered. (I saw the light.)
Earth is not doing well: UN reports see a lonelier planet with fewer plants, animals.
Hey, ivankinsman there is a cure for that. MORE CO2
Yeah, yeah, yeah … and I am Donald Trump
Every survey I have ever read puts Global Warming dead last in the things that people worry about.
So much for ivanski’s latest delusion.
That’s a generalisation if ever I have heard one Marski. You called me quite ‘pathetic’ for citing a source. Can you provide a source for this? Or is it just off the top of your head? To be frank, I think you are talking out of your arse…
BTW, I love it when someone points to their own website in order to support the nonsense they are touting.
Hiding it behind a redirection address in order to disguise the fact that you are doing so is even more pathetic.
Ivankinsman
There is no need for blinkers to go dark, to see nothing, if there is no electricity flowing. Biochemical luminescence is a rare form of seeing in the dark. Blinkered acceptance of foolish, even contradictory, symbolic acts, should be as rare.
I agree that the comments above about ‘what socialism and capitalism’ are require sane rebuttal, but the core analysis, which is that celebrating darkness with the kiddies as soon as the sun is well-set, is idiotic. ‘Doing something’ together is great and builds unity – essential to having a society at all – but unthinking adherence to fads is an expression of ignorance and demonstrates a lack of personal due diligence.
It appears that Earth Hour was originally, mainly aimed at children and training them to get used to being told what to do and think about environmental issues. Preening pre-greening of the young. But prying a glowing screen from the hands of a modern child for an hour is not how to build good will and create better friendships, evidently.
I agree with what you say about energy but definitely do not see AGW as a ‘fad’ along with millions of other people. Let’s just posit this theory: if sceptics are right then no harm done. But what if the sceptics are wrong – you might be prepared to take that risk but many people don’t, and you are in a distinct minority.
All I got as adverts on this and other internet sites yesterday was wwf harping on about this and all I could think was how much of other peoples money have they spent when it was probably given to help polar bears, penguins and other similarly unendangered animals!
James Bull
Earth Hour was started by WWF in 2007. The BBC, of course, celebrates this stupidity every year.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-39396407
Why would a bunch of wrestlers care whether your porch light is on?
What is Human Achievement Hour?
Human Achievement Hour is the Competitive Enterprises Institute’s annual celebration of innovation and progress. During this hour, people around the world pay tribute to human ingenuity and advancements in every field from healthcare and energy to communications and transportation.
These achievements by entrepreneurs and innovators allow us to live richer and fuller lives. They also help us solve problems and protect ourselves and our families in unpredictable situations, like emergencies and disasters.
https://cei.org/humanachievementhour
It is original sin. The sin is that we exist. These fools feel guilty for existing. The other part is that in the absence of religion, the only thing they can find that is pure and good is nature, so they deify nature. Nature is good and we are fallen from the garden of eden. The reality that humans in primitive conditions buried most of their children and fought constantly is conveniently forgotten. They should try living in a 3rd world country, and not in a nice hotel by the beach.
There is a book (can’t remember title) about how terrified people were of the dark in past times. Unless there was a moon and no clouds, you could get lost, fall off a cliff, get eaten by wild animals, get robbed and killed.
It was also a History Channel Docu. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLWbaUVY91o
The Emperor watching over the dark cities during “Earth Hour”:
“Good. GOOD. Let the stupid flow through you.”
You’re saying you want us to give up cheap virtue-signalling for Lent?
In the U.S., the useful idiots are busy today with trying to disarm the populace. So any mention of Earth Hour will have to wait until after the “March to Ignore Every Single Factor in Mass Killings Except for the Most Popular Choice of Weapon”.
The hour’s preferred flavor of Kool-Aid.
(Odd how today’s “The Greatest Threat to Humanity” always takes a backseat to the next “The Greatest Threat to Humanity” just because the latest one seems to have some momentum in the press.)
And also “The March To Ignore the Top 10 Causes of Death and Focus on the 11th” (you are around 5x more likely to kill yourself than to be murdered with a gun, and 10x more likely to die in an accident, which I am assuming is mostly composed of car accidents, and 20x more likely to be killed by your doctor!)
Every light in the house.
Guess how our local muppets will celebrate “Earth Hour”
With a torch march! Yes marching with burning torches while the community turns off electrical lights for one hour.
How quaint. Fire brings us back to our caveman roots. Sort of like what the Climatists want to do do our civilization.
What I would wish for is a millionaire who could afford to place the posting in the form of an full page advertisement open letter in a few national newspapers in the U.K./U.S.A on “Earth” Day, it would stick in a few craws but many would find the different view informative.
I plan to reread Isaac Asimov’s, “Nightfall”; however, I fear that dark and madness have already descended upon us!
the russians are at it again
Great article Prof. Ross. Well done. Right on the mark. Thanks And coming from academia, makes it even better.
Earth Hour — An hour when the only illumination is from hypocrites looking at their Faceberg status on their smartphones.
Bingo!
On 107.5 FM in and around Waterloo it is called FaceBitch.