Essay by Eric Worrall
Normally I publish something snarky about how we should all leave our lights on, but this year’s Earth Hour was such a non-event I genuinely didn’t notice it was happening.
Earth Hour: Saving our planet one light switch at a time
By Eric Ralls
Earth.com staff writerDid you know that every year, millions of people around the world join together to save energy and protect our planet? Earth Hour is a special event that helps raise awareness about climate change and encourages people to take action. In this article, we’ll explore what Earth Hour is, why it’s important, and how you can join the cause!
What is Earth Hour?
Earth Hour is an annual event organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). It started back in 2007 in Sydney, Australia, and has since grown into a global movement. The main idea behind Earth Hour is for people to turn off their lights and electronic devices for one hour. This usually happens on the last Saturday of March, from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM local time. This year, the date is Saturday, March 25.
Why is Earth Hour Important?
…
Read more: https://www.earth.com/news/earth-hour-saving-our-planet-one-light-switch-at-a-time/
So why was this year’s Earth Hour such a non event?
My theory is energy hardship.
For many people this year, switching the lights off is no longer a luxury but a necessity. For a lot of people in Britain and Europe especially, people struggling with energy bills they cannot afford, every night is “Earth Hour”.
“Earth Hour” this year was not so much an affirmation of a green believer’s love for the planet, as an unwelcome reminder of the grim personal circumstances so many are currently enduring.
It draws as much attention as Lenin’s Birthday, AKA Earth Day.
A bunch of worthless virtue signaling.
No question about the correlation between cheap virtue signaling and the enthusiasm to participate in this sort of silliness.
IMHO, they had the whole paradigm reversed: If we are indeed living a climate in crisis, then the world landmarks that are supposed to go dark for an hour should instead be kept dark 8,759 hours a year and only lit up for one, as a reminder of the life that we used to live when energy was inexpensive, reliable and plentiful.
Don’t underestimate the power (and danger) of outrage overload.
Rats. Sorry we missed it. We usually celebrate by turning on every light in the house, including the Christmas lights we haven’t taken down yet.
“For many people this year, switching the lights off is no longer a luxury but a necessity.”
If you want less of something, raise the price. For some reason many believe that making it illegal is a better solution.

How many is “many”? Seems way overblown.
Earth hour was on the 25th, yesterday? Oh nooooo! I didn’t remember to turn on every light and electrical appliance at home or go for a drive in my gas guzzler. Maybe next year.
Regards,
Bob
Ditto!
I wonder if the wealthy climate alarmists honored the event, or is it meant only for the peasants?
I believe Al Gore, honoured it, he turned off a table lamp, in one of his six humungous estates.
I wonder if any very wealthy people have volunteered to drastically lower their standard of living to have a very low carbon footprint? If any do- they should be on the cover of Time Magazine as person of the year. Let’s not hold our breath waiting.
Shouldn’t that be weasely?
I had no idea.
The French starlets didn’t notice because we are busy here burning trash. It’s pretty disgusting and they managed to almost burn an habitation building.
Last night at 8:30, watching March Madness. Earth what?
in many parts of the U.S. if you turn the lights off for an hour you run a serious risk of having your house burglarized.
I read 24 articles on climate and energy every morning — all by conservative authors — and did not read about Earth Hour until the next day, and only in one article. This was the second time anyone mentioned it.
I can’t wait until Earth Day on April 22, 2023 to publish my growing list of 100% wrong climate doom predictions.
Honest Climate Science and Energy Blog
Earth Hour? So irrelevant that it’s easily forgotten, in fact this is the first time I’d heard of it.
It’s stunts like this that make WWF a charity I’d never support.
Brings, a whole new meaning to “The Dark Ages”
At my house, we celebrated “Human Achievement Hour”. All the lights , and TVs, were on, while we watched movies, on NetFlix. 😀
On 6 October 2020, Boris Johnson announced that ‘wind farms could power every home by 2030’. He continued to harangue the public in Churchillian tone ‘Your kettle, your washing machine, your cooker, your heating, your plug-in electric vehicle – the whole lot of them will get their juice cleanly and without guilt from the breezes that blow around these islands.’ He was describing Government policy to expand existing offshore wind power from the existing capacity of 10.4 GW by an additional 40 GW, in addition to the already installed onshore capacity of 13.6 GW. The significant word in the announcement was ‘could’. Evidently, offshore wind might provide such lighting in the UK – sometimes. But Great Britain needs reliable energy all the time. British consumers should follow the example of Alice who, in negotiating terms with the White Queen, insisted on clarification of the day on which jam should be delivered. Evidently, they should not look to wind power for reliable energy, but elsewhere.
https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2023/03/Allison-Wind-energy.pdf
They don’t celebrate Earth hour much anymore because they pay homage to mother Earth every day.
As usual, i turned all my lights on.
If i could, i would disconnect from the grid for an hour and power the house with a portable diesel genset.
Because.
Back when it started, I would turn on every light in and on my house. I always left the Christmas lights up for this purpose. I live in the middle of “Candy Cane Lane” in my town, the most lit-up neighborhood at Christmastime. After lighting up for a full month, almost all of my neighbors would turn off all their lights for “earth hour”. I kept hoping some of them would come knocking on my door to demand I turn off lights, but none ever did.
The first couple years they went dark, but gradually, one by one they stopped. 3 years ago I didn’t see any dark houses. The last couple years I totally forgot about it. Wouldn’t have known it happened this year until I saw this article, there was no big hype in the media as in previous years.
Earth Hour is not only not being noticed as the years pass but also being mentioned less and less by the media that was so gung-ho about it in the past. The next gimmick in its category that will fall by the wayside shortly will be Earth Day; i.e. if it hasn’t already done so.