is earth hour too little too late?
as you’re probably aware by now, around the world today at 8:30 p.m. local time, everyone is being encouraged to turn off their lights and non-essential electrical appliances to save energy and create awareness for energy consumption. or something like that.
i first saw this advertised on my bank’s ATM, and began thinking about it. i’m an active environmentalist, so don’t get me wrong - i think we all need to do everything we can to save the planet from, well, ourselves. so perhaps a global consciousness during one hour on a designated day is getting us a step closer to where we need to be. but i have a couple problems (surprise, surprise).
1. the people who never really think about their footprint aren’t likely to take this seriously. and the people that do care are likely doing more than shutting off their lights for one hour every year.
2. it seems kind of useless. i put this in the category of those campaigns that call people to refrain from buying anything on a certain day. or to not buy gas during a certain time period. and from there it’s just one short step to a boycott - and if you don’t know how i feel about those, you’re welcome to ask! 
but i’ll save that rabbit trail for another day. the point here is that - while i doubt turning the lights off will HURT anything - realistically, it’s probably not going to help much of anything either. and it’ll be likely that the people who are already very environmentally aware will be shutting off their lights while the people who pretty much don’t care, well, still won’t care. i fail to see all the “awareness” being raised here.
3. so - there needs to be a call for a much greater sacrifice: globally, locally and individually. this isn’t going to be a post on the standard everyone should live up to (there really isn’t one - we could likely ALWAYS be doing more), or a rant about how we’re callously killing the planet. and the earth hour organization is likely doing much more than running a campaign to have everyone turn out the lights.
if this is a stepping stone to a larger, global conversation about our electricity needs, conservation and the life of planet earth, then great! and i really hope it is. maybe we DO need to start small, and i’m being too optimistic (or too san franciscan), but why can’t we encourage a bigger sacrifice, enact a greater challenge? this is, after all, the life of our home and we - her inhabitants - are the ones killing it off, piece by gigantic piece. if that’s not cause for drastic action, i don’t know what is.
March 28 2009 08:04 pm | the city
March 28th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Show me some real evidence of any of the effects of global warming…Like…..oh…..i don’t know……The earth warming? Maybe the ocean levels rising? These terrible things that people say are going to happen?
March 29th, 2009 at 6:23 am
i am so not having this conversation with you again. if you were willing to approach the ideas and evidence with an open mind, it might be a different story. but since you’ve already made up your mind, there’s nothing more i can say.
besides, this post was less about global warming specifically, and more about what we should be doing to take care of the earth. no matter what you believe in regards to global warming, i believe most of us could be doing more to ensure that one of our greatest gifts is respected and well-maintained. if you believe the earth is a gift from god, we should be doing nothing less.
getting caught up in the global warming debate can then be seen as a red herring distracting from the real issue: our obligation to be good stewards of what we’ve been given.
March 29th, 2009 at 6:39 am
I think this actually hurts the issue more than helps it, because it reduces it to something trite and feel-good instead of instigating changes that have an *effect*. It’s like walk-a-thons for breast cancer… makes everyone involved feel good about doing *something*, and “raises awareness”. We don’t need any more awareness. Everyone is very aware. The dangerous part is that when people put their effort into the publicity instead of the true goal, it makes them feel like they’ve already accomplished something, they “did their part”.
March 29th, 2009 at 11:27 am
exactly. i am DONE with “awareness.” (don’t even get me started on breast cancer awareness. good grief.) we need some action. one hour of “lights out” seems laughable the more i think about it.
how ’bout a call to recycle or compost (as much as i can’t believe it, there are communities that don’t offer these services)? or a challenge to try out public transportation? there are way more things than this, and i agree earth hour was more of a trite, feel-good move. it’s nowhere near enough, and it’s really not much of a starting point, imo.
March 29th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
I also agree that earth hour was just a way for people to feel that they are “saving their world from the crazy doom” that could potentially follow. While I do agree that alternatve public transportation would be fantastic ( I really wish they’d have a train between Pueblo and Colorado Springs) and recycling is a good thing to do…I still use hairspray, I throw paper away, I drive a jeep rubicon, etc. I know I have no chance in saving this place because it is promised to us that it will pass away in Revelation (not to get all religious on this blog) so I honestly think turing off all my electronics for one hour is seriously not even worth it…
March 29th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
you should read my post on why we should care about this world (literally and figuratively) even if you believe in a literal afterlife. the post isn’t directly about our responsibility toward the planet, but the principles tie in. i absolutely disagree that we have no responsibility to conserve the earth because “it will pass away.” even if you believe in a literal interpretation of revelation - which i don’t - we were put here on this planet in the here and now (or came to be here, whatever), and it was given to us as a gift. we are completely responsible for the way we treat what we’ve been called to care for - and we are miserably failing on so many fronts, including environmental conservation.
even if you believe that it’s all going to go down in a fiery blaze of glory (or whatever
) isn’t it a bit selfish to not care about what - if nothing else - we’re leaving to our children, grandchildren, etc. we don’t KNOW when the end will come, and we have absolutely no license to blithely kill and destroy the precious resources we’ve been given as if we were the only people that mattered.
i’m not calling you out, personally, but responding to your comments in general, which i think far too many people would agree with. and that saddens me. but seriously, you should just read the “how christianity as we know it has failed the people” post that i wrote since it covers this subject more in-depth.
March 29th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I love you, Alexis, I really do, but if I can quote the highly annoying O’reilly “we’re going to have to agree to disagree”…
March 29th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
i’m confused - so do you really think that since the earth is going to come to an end anyway, we shouldn’t care about how quickly or ridiculously we’re using up natural resources, causing pain, suffering and death, and what kind of horrendous problems we’re leaving for generations to come? doesn’t that seem a bit selfish regardless of your view on eternity? isn’t that counter-intuitive to how we’re supposed to live out god’s kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven”?