Earth Hour – Does it make a difference? – 46 Days
Tomorrow is Earth Hour. From 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM, millions across the globe are asked to shut off their lights and excess electronics. It has been a huge success since 2007, and more than 2100 cities are signed up for this year.
The big question is of course: does it make a difference? And the sad answer is, technically, no.
Even if everyone on the planet stopped using electricity for a single hour, it would be a simple drop in the bucket. Not even a splash. The fact is we use up so much energy as it is that, well, aside from reducing consumption, there really isn’t anything we can do to make things better.
But Earth Hour is not about saving the planet in one hour. Earth Hour is a symbolic gesture. It is a way of showing that you believe in standing up for the environment and that you are willing to do something about it.
Earth Hour has countless detractors who insist it will do absolutely nothing. These… misguided souls just don’t understand the point at all.
Earth Hour is one simple, easy to follow step to helping the planet. Same with changing your bulbs to compact florescent ones, same with shutting off the sink when you’re brushing your teeth, same with turning off the lights when you leave a room. They’re all small steps that every individual can take to lessen their impact on the earth. Like eating local – eating locally grown food (100 mile diet, anyone?) is not going to solve global warming. Neither is Earth Hour.
That is why Earth Hour detractors are completely and absolutely right when they say “Earth Hour is not going to solve global warming”. They are completely and absolutely when they call it pointless or stupid. It has a point; it isn’t stupid.
We’re only going to solve global warming if we start from the ground up. We need to send a message to government and politicians and say, we care. Earth Hour is just one of the many ways to do that.
Anyone who tells you that shutting off your lights for one hour a year is going to solve global warming is lying to you.
Anyone who tells you that Earth Hour is going to solve global warming may very well be right.
At the very least, it would do people well to “unplug” for an hour. Seriously – spend an hour in the dark. Have dinner with friends or family, go for a walk. I suspect a lot of these detractors aren’t people who genuinely think it’s pointless, but people who think it’s too hard to shut off their lights, computers, televisions, etc, for one hour.
Tags: earth hour, WWF
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March 27, 2010 at 11:18 AM
Thank you for this.
March 27, 2010 at 3:09 PM
You’re welcome– your comment reminded me to repost it for this year!