On Saturday, March 24th, Earth Hour was held in every time zone around the world at 8:30 PM local time. I had already run an essay pointing out why Earth Hour is little more than a ridiculous feel-good exercise that does nothing but demonize the value of electricity bringing mankind out of the darkness and poverty.
The headlines as displayed by Google search, looked like this:
You’d think it was a success, except for those pesky people in British Columbia that didn’t want to sit in the dark as much as they did before. In the AP story in the LA Times, this was said:
In Paris, the Eiffel Tower went dark. In London, a kaleidoscope of famous sites switched off their lights — Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Piccadilly Circus, the London Eye. That scene was repeated over and over across the world Saturday night: at Sydney’s Opera House; at New Delhi’s great arch; at Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; at Edinburgh Castle in Scotland; at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin; at St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow.
It lasted for just an hour and its power is purely symbolic. But in countries around the world, at 8:30 p.m., people were switching off their lights for Earth Hour, a global call for international unity on the importance of addressing climate change.
But, while I agree it was “purely symbolic” (aka ridiculous feel-good stunt) those are all words.
To really show why Earth Hour is ridiculous, we need some hard data.
For that, I turned to the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) and their online web tool that tracks statewide electricity usage, here: http://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/default.aspx
Here’s some screencaps of data from 3/24 at 8:30PM and 8:40PM California time. Note the inset box near the graph for the time and values. 20:30 is 830PM California time, right when Earth Hour is supposed to start.
Clearly, there’s not even a hint of the sharp hoped-for drop in electricity use the event was supposed to create.
Note there is hardly any difference in demand from 20:30 (8:30PM) to 20:40 (8:40PM) There’s a difference of 24,998MW at 8:30PM vs. 24,931 at 8:40PM. Proponents of the event might say that difference of 67MW in demand is “proof” of the success of Earth Hour.
Um, no.
CAISO also allows you to examine and compare the previous day of data, and that’s what I did and you can see in these two screen captures for 8:30PM and 8:40PM California time on Friday, March 23rd. Electricity demand for Saturday, March 24th is also displayed.
Yesterday, March 23rd, the total demand was 26,204MW at 8:30PM (20:30) and 26,081MW at 8:40PM (20:40) and the difference over that 10 minutes was 123 MW – nearly double.
So what that says that on a normal day, when Californians aren’t being told to turn off their lights to participate in the ridiculous stunt known as “Earth Hour” Saturday, they actually dropped nearly twice the electricity demand in those same 10 minutes on Friday.
Here is the data I downloaded from CAISO, you can check my findings:
CAISO-demand_03-23-24-18 (Excel file)
I suspect that if other data was examined around the world, we’d find similar results saying that Earth Hour had no discernible impact on electricity demand.
That lack of significant impact on electricity use during Earth Hour in California could be for one of two reasons:
- Participation could be essentially non-existent – people really don’t want to sit in the dark
- More people left their lights on (as I recommended) to protest the ridiculous stunt and muted the impact of the few who did turn off their lights and sit in the dark.
Let that sink in. Clearly, Earth Hour was a complete failure in the nation-state that supposedly leads the world in greenness and sustainability. If they can’t sell it in uber-green California, maybe they should just give up on the event.
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I wouldn’t even have known about it if I didn’t come to WUWT every day, and even then I forgot about it, which is a shame, as I might have gone to the superb Lantern Light Festival in Vallejo again to celebrate and further support the use of light and beautiful colors. Was there a few nights ago. Although it wouldn’t have made a significant contribution to the usage data, it’s definitely symbolic:
http://oi66.tinypic.com/iem7o1.jpg
I forgot about it as well.
Beautiful.
I detected a particular lack of enthusiasm in the local media. I think ‘they’ are just going through the motions. They aren’t going to cancel Earth Hour but they are going to let it peter out. Maybe ‘they’ have discovered that it isn’t worth the effort.
I think it’s due to the Trump effect. The MSM is suffering so badly from Trump Derangement that they forgot to promote Earth Day. I’ve heard almost nothing about it this year, if it weren’t for WUWT I would have never known it was Saturday.
Every year I walk around my neighbourhood on Earth Day to observe how many homes have their lights off. This year, for the first time, no homes were dark. None.
And my kids, who used to be big Earth Day enthusiasts, didn’t even know it was Earth Day. Wow. Times change.
Trump.
Earth Hour, I meant Earth Hour.
The schools are all herding the kids into the anti-gun crusade this month. No time left over to save the planet.
Yes, I think even the committed only have a fixed amount of concern or outrage that they have available. If they spend it all on Trump, or plastic floating in the ocean, then they will not have any left for global warming.
Not to mention Klem that the leftist agenda is messing with these kids Netflix usage. This “don’t use electricity and save the planet” nonsense is a word and not a participation game for the “ute” of American. To Rod’s point they have no skin in the “take everyone’s gun” game and Michael they have an endless amount outrage so long as it doesn’t cost them anything. Which is why Joe Wagner is spot on. Anytime you require one of these safe zone leftists to jump on the grenade they move rapidly in the other direction. But Trebla, we can dream can’t we? Yours is a very pleasant thought, a world without megaphones screeching outrage.
My evil plot to destroy the planet is finally coming to fruition. Last Saturday night, the wife and I were leaving a movie theater, and there it was: a receptacle with a huge sign over it that read “Save the Planet – Recycle Your 3D Glasses!”
So one year from that day, at exactly 8:30 pm EDT, I plan to throw away my 3D glasses! Mwwwwwaaaahahahahahahhaaaaaa! Prepare to meet thy doom, flat-earth denialists!!!
Michael Kelly,
My plan is even more devastating then that,
I have an idea that we could all find more appealing. I call it “breath hour”. Let all the Greens stop breathing for one hour once per year. This would reduce the amount of CO2 exhaled as a symbolic gesture to show their love for the planet while avoiding any inconvenience to those who chose not to take part.
They’d just demand everyone else do it while they jog everywhere checking up on us, thus doubling their CO2 output.
Where I live, White Night is all the rage now days.
Bad luck, Earth Hour. You got gazumped.
What is the betting that the candles being lit were paraffin wax?
I’ll guess it wasn’t whale oil.
Anthony, I agree with you that the whole stunt is a ridiculous stunt, I would like to see if you could tighten up the data. When I do energy models I use a different profile for a Saturday than I do on a weekday. Secondly, I find that a scatter plot of temperature on the x-axis vs either consumption (kWhr) or demand (kW) on the y-axis gives the most accurate indication of an actual energy savings. (It’s supposed to produce a 3-point floating trend line, but I haven’t written the macros to make Excel do that). So scatterplot several other Saturdays in one color, and a different color for “Earthhour”. Then you’ll know something.
next you’ll be telling them there’s no omniscient distributor of causeless wealth or something and totally ruin their childhoods. just crush their self esteem why don’t you?
It is as stupid as the forty eight hour famine. Achieves nothing and proves nothing.
Proof is in the eye of the beholder.
These charades prove plenty to me, but I don’t think it’s ever what the organizers intend.
You can search here for any UK data
http://gridwatch.org.uk
Times are GMT
Paul Homewood has is covered:
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2018/03/25/it-was-earth-hour-last-night-in-case-you-didnt-notice/#comments
Just more virtue signalling nonsense.
The Left/Green element isn’t interested in facts, only in false perceptions
Al Gore turned up the heater 10 degrees, fed his hounds kangaroo meat, then ate a hearty meal of bbqed central African flamingo.
Recently a game warden came across Al Gore sitting in the forest under a giant redwood. Al was eating a bald eagle. The game warden was aghast and demanded “Al, of all people you should know that even owning a bald eagle feather is against the law. How could you possibly eat one?” Being quick on his feet, Al justified his eating a bald eagle with the following sad tale. “I sincerely apologize. You see I was walking through the forest staring at the tops of the trees and exalting in the glory of nature. I stumbled over a root and twisted my ankle so badly I couldn’t walk. I would have starved; but fortunately a bald eagle died in flight and fell at my feet. It was a message from the all mighty, and I proceeded to follow His wishes by eating his bounty knowing that He wanted me to carry on my message.” After giving the matter some thought, the game warden said “I understand and even sympathize with your situation; but I’m legally bound to give you give you a summons requiring that you appear before a federal magistrate. I wouldn’t worry though. I’m sure the magistrate will be sympathetic and void the ticket.” Sure enough, the magistrate listened to Al’s tale of woe and ruled that the extraordinary circumstances warranted dismissing all charges. As the court was being adjourned the magistrate pulled Al aside and asked “I just have to know. What does a bald eagle taste like?” Al replied “Well, if the bald eagle is barbecued with a pinch of salt and a sprinkling of lemon, it tastes exactly like a California condor.
I forgot it was earth hour until I read it on WUWT. I searched our news but found nothing. Earth hour in New Zealand is a thing of the past .Our kids won’t know what earth hour is.
If we look at it from a psychological perspective it goes something like this…. (It might be an explanation for it all)
How many psychologists does it take to change a light-globe?
Only one, if the light-globe actually wants to change.
I thought the Eiffel tower went dark in memory of the gendarme killed at Trébes, Carcassonne.
The BBC did show the lights going out but even they didn’t manage to make much of it.
I would have been more impressed if the BBC simply went dark for an hour.
Oh my dayz. Could you imagine if the BBC actually tried to live up to what they want for the rest of us? How fantastic would it be if they had a regular audit to monitor their progress to be “carbon-free”. What merciful release.
I forgot but I will turn my lights out when I go to bed. We all have to do our part. So climate change has been ended for now everywhere and for all time because of this exercise. However; stoping the Earth’s climate from changing will not put an end to extreme weather evernt or sea level rise because they are all part of the current climate.
“I will turn my lights out when I go to bed.” We applaud your activism and thank you for your contribution!
Pleased that they did not switch off the power to the hospitals, the sewerage works, street lighting, traffic lights, computer hubs, etc. etc..
Sewerage — Part of Earth Hour should be “holding it” — or, at the very least, not flushing it, for an hour. “Activists” could make a statement by going out on the streets.
But aren’t they already doing that in San Francisco?????
If you were a good greeny who intended to take part in Earth Hour, would you leave all the lights on up until 8.30, or would you start switching everything off early? If the later, then could this partly explain the readings?
This kind of statistic information was easily obtained few years ago, but not anymore …
… in Sweden …
What did Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and the city and campus at Berkeley (Berzerkely) look like during that time? Did any of the other heavily blue states (NY, NJ, almost all of New England, etc) go significantly dark? It would be interesting to see if such leftist enclaves actually walked the walk instead of just talked the talk. I suspect I know the answer in most cases though.
I kept my outdoor lights on throughout the night to celebrate Earth Day.
I would have, but didn’t notice the significance of the date until it was too late.
This again demonstrates Activist David Hogg’s curse that “Our parents don’t know how to use their f*****g democracy!. Just wait until he turns his attention to Glow-bull Warning, what rhetoric – empty!
Didn’t even know it was happening otherwise I would have switched some lights on. Previous years it has been in the news in the UK before the event but cannot recall anything this year. Spent the hour in a warm well lit pub enjoying a hot cooked meal and some good real ale brewed and distributed using heat and energy.
If these idiots want to make a point I suggest they go and live for a month without any electricity. They wouldn’t last 5 minutes without checking their phones or internet for facebook or twitter..
I look forward to the day when it will be “lights out” for the CAGW movement. Can’t come soon enough.
Unlike Earth Day, Earth Hour is a johnny-come-lately movement which started in 2007, whose sole focus was (and is) on cutting electric power use. particularly lighting, which is why they chose night time. It was meant to both dramatize and invigorate the anti-fossil fuel Climatist movement, now in the process of dying. Earth Day began in 1970, and was a true environmental movement, with some actual environmental causes like actual pollution. They did hitch their wagon to the Globalist Warming movement, probably around the same time as Earth Hour, 2007, probably because a lot of the environmental concerns had been addressed. People needed something to be “concerned” about. But, that hasn’t really panned out for them, since the CAGW movement is dying. So now, they’ve latched onto plastic as their latest cause-du-jeur, saying “the exponential growth of plastics is now threatening the survival of our planet”.
Really? It’s threatening the survival of our planet? Our planet would probably beg to differ.
I remember after the first Earth Hour, somebody published a picture of a city with a bridge in the fore ground. I don’t remember what city it was.
The first picture was at 8pm, the second picture was at 9pm. The second picture was noticeably darker. The publisher proclaimed that this proved that Earth Hour was a success. The problem was quite a few people noticed that the headlights on the cars on the bridge were less than half as bright in the second picture.
Either somebody had figured out a way to dim car headlights, or the second picture was dramatically under exposed compared to the first one.
It was probably the one in Sydney Harbour. They were the originators of the dumb idea.
The original Earth Day sprang out of the anti-capitalist fervor of a couple communists, Gaylord Nelson and Denis Hayes and a pointy-headed intellectual, Paul Ehrlich.
This has been a very successful campaign – as with the term “feminism,” they made it normal and required to say you were an “environmentalist.” The concepts are vague, and so they can then slip in any distantly related, sensible or foolish, idea they want, and have the populace half-way supportive without having to explain very much at all. –For example, I recycle, and think it is a fine idea, but I have also read the analyses noting that in many cases it takes more energy and produces more pollution to recycle than to create some material from original-source resources – but this never gets discussed, since we all blankly accept the idea, generally.
OMG, it is no longer sustainable!
There is no cure for stupidity.
No. But there is therapy.
(3 Rs style.)
The 3 Rs can be a cure for ignorance or IOW a lack of knowledge. But stupidity is a lack of the ability to learn or intelligence and thus by definition cannot be cured by learning.
Definition of ignorance
: the state or fact of being ignorant : lack of knowledge, education, or awareness
Definition of stupid
1
a : slow of mind : obtuse
b : given to unintelligent decisions or acts : acting in an unintelligent or careless manner
c : lacking intelligence or reason : brutish
Where’s Gray Davis & Enron when they need a blackout?
North Korea practices Earth Hour every night – all night long.