The purpose of “Earth hour” is to raise awareness of global warming, a subject that really needs more exposure and media coverage (this is irony, in case you’re a moron).

There are several things about the concept that pisses me off:

• As mentioned it is part of the media hype that is global warming, lots of talk and no action.
• The decrease in electricity usage is statistically insignificant, and just underlines the uselessness of the whole thing.
• The cost of all those people going around turning on / off lights, planning, etc..  Those money would be better used as paperweight for other money that you are planning to flush down the toilet at at later occasion.
• With the relatively clean hydro plants in Norway, burning a paraffin candle probably releases more CO2 than a light bulb.
• Because it’s a stupid symbolic action that is totally unproductive, a quick fix for millions of people who wants to get in on environmentalism but only have an hour to spare.
• Like everything else, the large masses will have forgotten about earth hour in a couple of days (or sooner), and won’t remember it until they read it in the paper or get a facebook invite next year. It will in no statistical significant way mean anything to our energy habits.
• They say this is to just to focus people’s attention towards global warming, but nothing is done with that attention (see below)

The goal of earth hour

What is Earth hour, this is from the “official” site, earthhour.org:
“This year, Earth Hour has been transformed into the world’s first global election, between Earth and global warming.”
What is the point of voting when nobody counts the votes, people don’t know what or understand the implications of what they are voting over, and the result (if any) are not even considered by anyone?

“Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming”
Global warming won by a landslide.

“We all have a vote, and every single vote counts”
No, none of the “votes” count, turning off the lights for 0.012 % of the year does nothing except providing what a sad bunch of drones you all are.

“WHAT CAN YOU DO?”

The most useless and disturbing part of the shitty earthhour.org site unveils itself  when you click “Take action”, this part of the site shows you what wonderful things you can do to save the planet:

• “Turning your lights off for an hour is a great start”
• “Tell A Friend. Better still – tell them, your family and even your work mates. Encourage them to sign up. Email them a link to this website and mobilise even more people!”
• “Run your own Earth Hour. Download our quick guide for how to run Earth Hour in your city or town. It’s easy!”
• “Your Earth Hour. What will you be doing at 8.30pm on Saturday March 28? We’re keen to know what you have planned for Earth Hour 2009. If you’d like to share your plans with Earth Hour and the media, then please send us an email describing with as much detail as you can what you have planned to myearthhour@earthhour.org. Don’t forget to include your name, where you live (City and Country), and your contact telephone number including your country code.”
• “Blogger Tool Kit: Create a blog post about the importance of global action on climate change and how participation in Earth Hour can make a difference.”
• “Update your Twitter status on the night and tag it #earthhour or #voteearth”
• “Now you can get latest news, sign up your support and spread the Vote Earth message from your mobile. Simply use your phone to log on to http://m.earthhour.org”
• “Tell the world: Get the Earth Hour GiverSign and make your e-mails, blog posts, Facebook feeds and MySpace pages advocate the Earth Hour message”

Unless you are a complete tool, by looking at the ways to “Take action”, you see that every fucking thing you can do is to promote Earth Hour, but if that is the only thing you can do, WHY BOTHER? it’s like some kind of twisted pyramid scheme, where there is no real value or action taking place, except requiting and talking about it. There are no real solutions to climate problems, and no fake solutions either for that matter. It’s just a mindless urge to spread earth hour on facebook, blogs (I guess I’m doing my part right now), youtube, twitter, flicker, etc..

Earth hour is one big sick joke, and it’s on YOU..