Some thoughts on Earth Hour
Posted by Joscelyn on March 31st, 2008
I’ve been known to be a contrarian. For some reason I like to go against the grain, just for the sake of being contrary. So when I was thinking about Earth Hour and what I really thought of it and considered writing it down, I made myself take a step back and let the thoughts percolate for a couple of days before I committed a long cynical rant to the internet. But after letting it fester a couple of days, my opinions haven’t changed. And after hearing what other’s thought on the radio, or reading what they thought online, I realized I’m not alone on this. I think Earth Hour is a crock.
It made a whole lot of people feel good to participate and allowed a whole lot more to be snide towards people who chose not to take part. It put a lot of pressure on businesses to “do the right thing” by turning off office tower lights and the ones who didn’t were shunned and booed. But did it have any kind of lasting effect? I’m fairly sure office towers were alight last night and will be bright tonight and tomorrow and so on. Lights were blazing again in homes last night, will be tonight and tomorrow (you get the picture). Offices should be turning off their lights on their own. They shouldn’t do it simply to succumb to PR pressure from the World Wildlife Fund. People should be careful about their electricity consumption all the time, not just for one measly hour because the media and your neighbours tell you to.
I do my best to only have the light on in the room I’m currently in. It’s not always easy and I do forget, but I do my best and I’m usually pretty good about it. We recycle A LOT. We have a blue bin for paper, a blue bin for everything else and a green bin for organics. There are a lot of people out there who do far more for the environment than I. There are far more people out there who do far less. Will those people step up and starting monitoring their electricity consumption now? A couple might, maybe for a little while. But not because they have chosen to; because they feel pressured to. And while some might argue that it doesn’t matter how they get there, so long as they do, I would argue that people who do things out of pressure and not willful desire, will not do so for long.
I have a friend who was very eager to take part in Earth Hour. She was going to go down to the concert in Nathan Philips Square and be all involved and take a stand and all that good stuff. And she did do that all that. She also left her computer on while she was downtown and drove a Jeep down there instead of taking public transit. I would venture a guess that she wasn’t alone. To me, those people missed the whole point. They heard “turn out the lights” but didn’t factor in the effect leaving home electronics on and driving has on the environment. We still have a long way to go.
Yes, Earth Hour bought some awareness to the cause, which is always a good thing. But at the end of day when the lights were back on and the city was buzzing with neon signs, did anything really come of it?
Posted to Life outside PR, Media, Ranting
April 2nd, 2008 » 2:59 pm
At gloss, we had a different take on Earth Hour: http://www.glossblog.ca
April 3rd, 2008 » 7:19 pm
I defended my point on the Gloss Blog, but one thing I’ll add is this: did anyone else not see the ridiculousness in a concert to promote Earth Hour? Yes it was a “green” concert, in the dark. But wouldn’t it have been better, energy-wise, to not have a concert at all? Ok, I’m done… I think. You never know….
April 3rd, 2008 » 8:28 pm
Let me first say that I am behind miss Joscelyn 100%. My better half and I were downtown after an afternoon of indoor climbing and waited, and waited and wait…oh, hey there they go…the lights on the hotels popped off at around 8:30. The thing that bugged me the most was the billboards and signs. Street lights, emergency lights leave them on, safety prevails, but signs advertising hair care or club that wont open for two more hours…disappointing to say the least. It was just an expensive effort to make everyone feel good about themselves. a concert at Nathan Philip square?! They had two huge LED TVs going up there with amps, not to mention Nelly Furtado, whom I’m guessing doesn’t come cheap; had they let it be an organic experience where people could individually make of it what they would instead of enticing a couple thousand free concert loving people down town, they probably could have afforded to keep those community rinks open and saved the equivalent of the power needed to run a small Quebec ski town. But hey! Torontonians need to celebrate their good deed with pomp and ceremony.
All in all, Joscelyn, you are 100% right, Earth Hour was a crock! a Magnificent display communications execution, but as far as really helping the world in a time of quick paced crisis…I don’t think an 8.7% dip in electricity usage will help build that green wall of UV protection, and it certainly wont make The Sheraton turn off it’s sign on the weekends, make your friend stop driving her jeep when she can take public transport or make people stop and think about purchasing their plastic bottled water.
Thank you for voicing your opinion and in turn letting me agree with you.
–I’m now off to check out what they were saying at Gloss–
April 4th, 2008 » 3:21 pm
Jos, I hadn’t noticed that you were a contrarian! (Kidding.)
I think that the Earth Hour effort was interesting in the way that it brought people together to ‘celebrate’ turning off the power. It reminded me of the blackout of ‘03 and was a great reason to eat by candlelight. People asked me throughout the day what I was ‘doing’ for Earth Hour. I like that kind of thing.
But of course, party poopers are everywhere. A friend of ours was having a dinner party that night and we asked him what time we should drop by. He said ‘whenever’. This was when we realized he didn’t know about the event (don’t ask) and we explained about how everyone was shutting off the power for ‘Earth Hour’. His response was, “I’m not following that rule.”
Now, he’s a unique case to say the least (and notoriously contrarian), but as we tried to explain that it wasn’t a ‘rule’ (more of a symbolic gesture) he brushed us off and said he wasn’t going to be made to feel guilty for having ‘one stupid light on in his kitchen’.
April 8th, 2008 » 7:14 am
You know, it’s kinda funny that this comes out now. I personally didn’t participate in Earth Hour for various reasons. One being that it was more sizzle than steak. A cute little show, but nothing that will in anyway shape the future of this planet. Much like Hands Across America or the Hooters Racing circuit.
On a personal note, I for one can never support or forgive the World Wildlife Fund. They forced the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) who happens to share the same ‘initials’ to change their name in 2002 to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)
As far as the girls from Laguna Beach (or a rival PR company… I honestly couldn’t tell the difference) saying that they had a different take, well everyone has an opinion.
And you know what they say about opinions.
April 8th, 2008 » 8:00 am
Okay, maybe the Laguna Beach comment was a little harsh - and I was only kidding about that. (Probably had something to do with the mention of celebrity gossip and love of coffee shops.) But the more I read it, the more I have to agree with Joscelyn over the ladies Gloss.
But then again, that too is my opinion, right?
April 25th, 2008 » 9:24 am
Earth Hour was, IMHO, not a crock. It was a PR strategy to get people to think about energy conservation and climate change. And, while there are many of us who already do simple things like conserve energy by turning off the lights, there are even more who don’t.
I heard about plenty of folks who deliberately kept their lights on, who idled their cars or adopted a general FU attitude for the event and that’s their prerogative, certainly. It was a PR strategy and not everyone needs to buy into it.
My biggest fear is that people don’t think about conserving energy usage. We live in a province whose government recently adopted nuclear energy — an expensive environmental disaster — because people don’t want to compromise their lifestyle or business opportunities in the face of the very real climate crisis.
May 4th, 2008 » 10:48 am
Right on ! Thanks god this Earth day is Over - Everyone felt good for a few days getting their interior designer to turn their living space Green! We are reaching a huge world crisis due to the price of the Barrel soaring- And most people still go out buying new SUV every couple of Years or heat their apartment in such a way in winter that you have to walk around naked - The US is Crumbling because no one cares about the earth more then the usual Earth Day