rabble's Earth (H)ours: what will you do for tomorrow

I was thinking exactly that, M. Spector - I'll shut down for an hour when the tar sands shut down for the same time.

This exercise is bullshit on one level, because the main polluters continue their merry way. On another level, it's educating the populace to take responsibility for their ecological impact (heh, almost said "footprint").

I still don't believe anything I do for the environment will be of consequence for the country as a whole so long as the Alberta tar sands projects keep expanding. [img]mad.gif" border="0[/img]

quote:

---

Why should I be inconvenienced because a generation of easterners have had things too good, too long?

---

Yeah, we're all fucking rich in Ontario. Rich!! Pardon me while I go inspect my factories.

I am going to watch the news at 8pm, as they are sure to have something on that they would not otherwise report, because no one will be wtaching. Shit, I do not get a news channel, so that won't work. Oh well, it will be 5pm here when everyone, or some, will be turning their lights out, so I will be having dinner, or someone will be making it.

But I most certainly will not be turning my hydro off.

Do not know how it could be an education tool, if people do not know about energy conservation by now, in this world today it is by choice, not neglect of education.

Albertans have to take responsibility for the Tar Sands until they do, nothing will get done about them.

In my granddaughters school, they are hard core about recycling and garbage, she knew about it in kindergarten, I just assumed it was that way in all schools these days.

I agree AB is hopeless, my neighbour is a tar sands worker he bought his place so he can snow mobile in the Alpine during the winter. [img]rolleyes.gif" border="0[/img]

Last summer we caught him just as he was going to "round up" his dandilions and mentioned to him that his water well was at the bottom of the hill on his property, and that it was not a deep well reaching the underground lake, but a gravity fed well that fills up from run off and he would be contaminating his own water supply.

Make some people feel good for the rest of the year, I suppose.

Catchfire, despite the likely majority of Canadians taking a stand against environmental degradation and global climate change, it may be that - as in my case - we are disenhearted, discouraged, and, especially, [i]angry[/i] at the continuing growth of tar sands projects, at the continuing sale of huge gas guzzlers, and likely hundreds of other polluting things, all of which make these initiatives ("Earth Hour") irrelevant. It's hard not to reach the conclusion that Canada is a lost cause with regard to the environment and green initiatives, especially with the anti-environment jerks in office in Alberta and Ottawa.

Sorry Boom Boom, I agree with you! I was being cynical. When Imperial Oil says it will turn off its lights for an hour while the Tar Sands project proceeds apace, the hypocrisy is sickening.

It's just another step in the commodification of environmentalism.

I plan to use it as an educational tool in this way: Our son is 13 so he already knows everything but it will give me a chance to talk about how the idea for Earth Hour came out of an advertising agency -- which now is part owner of the "Earth Hour brand." The same agency handles advertising for many major corporations, including Kellogg's, McDonald's and General Motors.

I liked [url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080325.wdoyle25/BNS... John Doyle[/url] in The Globe and Mail on the subject:

quote:

---

Earth Hour is feel-good flim-flammery ... The essential principle behind Earth Hour is to shift the burden of awareness about environmental issues from corporations to individual consumers. The essential result is that a bunch of people turn off the lights for an hour and feel virtuous. Meanwhile, GM
continues to make and sell the things that do the most damage to the planet.

---

We're not at all cynical about conserving energy any way we can, by the way -- but we do it all the time, not just for a symbolic hour.

For me, that is emblematic of what Earth Hour is about: Google isn't even really turning out their lights! It's purely a symbolic, that is, virtual, gesture.

I completely support using Earth Hour as an educational opportunity though. With kids it seems like a great idea, especially since it's not a one-off thing with most babblers.

The problem arrives, as is pointed out in the rabble.ca story, because events like this provide the opportunity for corporations to pose as concerned citizens--they get the badge without doing the work. I would also add that the bourgeois nature of free Nelly Furtado concerts, for example, deflect the real, desperate and immediate crisis posed by climate change and commodify it, subvert it, and soften it, into some kind of party. It's not a party. [url=http://www.richardheinberg.com/endorsements/thepartysover]The Party's Over.[/url]

I regret to say that I can't find John Doyle in any other place. I hadn't thought about access when I posted that link.

But while I was looking, I found over 11 million results for Earth Hour on a google search. Some people, I see, are having Earth Hour parties. Which prompts me to ask: Will their friends drive to the party? Will they use their stove for longer periods today, getting food ready for the party? Will they make an extra trip to the liquor store, to make sure there's enough booze?

I'm a believer in having a good time but it gets harder to take Earth Hour seriously when it reaches this point.

It was the subject of The Globe and Mail poll yesterday: "Have you made special plans for Earth Hour Saturday?" And today, The Globe has headlines reading "60 things to do during Earth Hour" and "How I trained for Earth Hour."

Not to pick on The Globe and Mail (although it's pretty silly), other newspapers are firmly on the bandwagon also.

It's turning into the Super Bowl.

We'll shut down for the hour, mostly to set the example for the kids and because I know the real culprits won't do a damn thing.

Won't be hard, as I am pretty neurotic about following everyone around switching things off anyways. My dad was a "jeeessuuus, are we trying to heat the whole outdoors?" kinda guy.

CBC Edmonton had an interview with someone from the City of Edmonton yesterday. She was pleased because the city was actually going to shut off all "non-essential" lighting for the hour. Yay.

There should be no non-essential lighting to turn off.

This is a cold house, but not cold enough to put the wood furnace on, so I leave the basement lights and electric heaters on much of the time - every little bit of heat helps. Hydro is relatively cheap here, and will likely stay that way, what with all the hydro projects under consideration (one big project under construction in Havre St. Pierre; one smaller project finished about ten years ago in Robertson Lake; one project under consideration north of La Romaine; another project under consideration north of Chevery).

quote:

---

Originally posted by Webgear:
[b]I just visited [url=http://www.google.ca/]google[/url]and they have turned off the lights at their website.[/b]

---

They stole the idea from [url=http://www.blackle.com/]Blackle[/url], which is lights out 24/7.

John Doyle:

quote:

---

Earth Hour is feel-good flim-flammery. In particular, it's ideal fodder for local TV news coverage, of which there has been a lot in Toronna and perhaps in your city, too. Local TV news adores this kind of nonsense. The idea of Earth Hour is, on the surface, a no-brainer. People turn off lights. Cool. Then they turn on the TV later to see the cool footage of the city before and after the lights went out. The exact help this provides for the planet in never seriously discussed. Nobody ever points out that, while the lights are out, tens of thousands of people are motoring around in big-honkin' SUVs, causing all manner of crap to be distributed into the air. Nobody on your local TV news is going to say a word about that because the TV stations needs the commercials for those big-honkin' SUVs in order to make a buck.

---

I got this article through the Toronto Public Library web interface, which allows anyone with a valid card to read the Globe (no infernal subscription wall).

[img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]

Brilliant! Thank you.

.sdrawkcab ffuts gniyas ta doog ytterp saw syawla I yllanosreP

I've always liked Mendelson Joe, especially when he was Joe Mendelson in the band McKenna Mendelson Mainline (they played Ottawa's Le Hibou a few times).

[url=http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1725947,00.html]Earth Hour '08: Will It Matter?[/url]

Because climate change is essentially a political problem, and the language of politics is symbolism. Just because an act is symbolic doesn't mean it empty. The only way to truly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to take the
pressure off global warming, is an international regime that puts a cap and a price on climate pollution. And the only way that will happen is if
politicians around the world become convinced that climate change is an issue that matters to people, one that will make them change the way they live, buy — and vote. "Unlike most of the issues that we grapple with, climate change is global," says Roberts. "The pressure is on us to do the right thing." If shutting off the lights for an hour on Saturday night and doing yoga in the dark makes that political support, well, visible, then Earth Hour will have been worth it.

Hee, I haven't said anything to my husband about it all and he just turned and said, "Oh yeah. We have to turn everything off at 8 because there is this 'thing' going on. Have you heard about it? I can't remember what it's called."
I asked where he heard about it and he couldn't remember exactly.
He also said, while once a year is alright, maybe making it a once a month thing or even a weekly thing would be even better.

What's wrong with feeling good?

Hear! Hear!

[img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]

Did I miss something?

[img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]