Mar 28, 2009
Posted in Science at 6:26 pm by David Bradley
Is Earth Hour a great way to raise global awareness of how much energy we are wasting and the possible consequences or our actions? Or, is it simply a cop out so that we can all feel we did "our bit" for the environment without expending any real effort?
With just hours to go for us Brits before we have to switch off the lights, I conducted an ad hoc strawpoll on twitter, here are a few of the early responses.
4KM (Re: more than turning off lights). We’re turning down heat, 100-mile diet today, not driving, planting radishes in organic
wburris Earth Hour is so everyone can pretend they are doing something to save the planet
VeronicaMcG Yes Earth Hour could be/do more, but this step to coordinate Int’l grassroots action, awareness & cooperation is worthwhile.
tpolytmus I hope people are walking to these EarthHour meetups. (seen on #flickr)
sanmccarron Yes we should, but makes a statement to all. Bringing in one at a time.
ianwalker@sciencebase Earth Hour just sounds like another event to make people feel they’re doing something without having to change their lifestyles
TheTDog@sciencebase i think the idea is raise awareness about saving energy
Seema84@sciencebase I agree. If people put their TV’s on and other stuff it doesn’t make any sense
dnotice@sciencebase You could switch the colours in your internet browser: I’ve now got black backgrounds & white text…
I hadn’t heard of Earth Hour until seeing the above post, on 3/30. But I like the idea. Sure, the amount of power saved, and the impact on most people, will be very little right now. But at least some people participated and here we are talking about it!
How did the “stop global warming” movement itself get started? It was invisible to the general public for a long time but people like Al Gore, who was derided for it early on, and a huge number of lesser lights, persevered and today we have major national governments making global efforts to do something about it. Earth Hour just might be the tipping force to convince those governments to get really serious.
Mohammed, interesting point, except of course that rising atmospheric CO2 levels are not strictly related to the ozone hole. Co2 is an issue of rising temperatures caused by the greenhouse effect.
In my opinion instead of delaying our jobs and turning off lights for even 1 hour, make a pressure on the big forces in the world USA & Israel to stop wars, because all that wars increase in the atmosphere the carbon dioxide which make the expand of the ozone layer hole and make all the atmospheric problems.
How many of you switch off all electronic devices?
Just piece of crap! It should have been done 20 or perhaps 30 years ago when the issue was still at early stage. Raising awareness now is just like taking medicine when you know you are dying anyway.