The Real Meaning of Earth Hour

Last Saturday, during "Earth Hour," I wrote a brief post about my own celebration of "Human Achievement Hour." (We celebrated it last year, too.) I found an excellent post by Keith Lockitch called "The Real Meaning of Earth Hour" that precisely and eloquently expresses the point.  

People don't have a clear view about what [a massive reduction in carbon emissions] would mean in practice. . . Participants spend an enjoyable sixty minutes in the dark, safe in the knowledge that the life-saving benefits of industrial civilization are just a light switch away. This bears no relation whatsoever to what life would actually be like under the sort of draconian carbon-reduction policies that climate advocates are demanding . . .

Forget one measly hour with just the lights off. How about Earth Month, without any form of fossil fuel energy? Try spending a month shivering in the dark without heating, electricity, refrigeration; without power plants or generators; without any of the labor-saving, time-saving, and therefore life-saving products that industrial energy makes possible.[1]

NOTES


1. Keith Lockitch, "The Real Meaning of Earth Hour," Capitalism Magazine, 25 Mar 2011, "http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/science/environment/earth-day/5475-the-real-meaning-of-earth-hour.html".