Earth Hour demonizes electricity

a reader sent in the following article...

The whole mentality around Earth Hour demonizes electricity. I cannot do that, instead I celebrate it and all that it has provided for humanity. Earth Hour celebrates ignorance, poverty and backwardness. By repudiating the greatest engine of liberation it is nothing more than an hour devoted to anti-humanism.

I abhor Earth Hour. Abundant, cheap electricity has been the greatest source of human liberation in the 20th century. Every material social advance in the 20th century depended on the proliferation of inexpensive and reliable electricity. Giving women the freedom to work outside the home depended on the availability of electrical appliances that free up time from domestic chores. Getting children out of menial labour and into schools depended on the same thing, as well as the ability to provide safe indoor lighting for reading. Development and provision of modern health care without electricity is absolutely impossible. The expansion of our food supply, and the promotion of hygiene and nutrition, depended on being able to irrigate fields, cook and refrigerate foods, and have a steady indoor supply of hot water. Most of the world’s poor suffer brutal environmental conditions in their own homes because of the necessity of cooking over indoor fires that burn twigs and dung. This causes local
deforestation and the proliferation of smoke- and parasite-related lung diseases. Anyone who wants to see local conditions improve in the third world should realize the importance of access to cheap
electricity from fossil-fuel based power generating stations. That’s how we developed.

The whole mentality around Earth Hour demonizes electricity. I cannot do that, instead I celebrate it and all that it has provided for humanity. Earth Hour celebrates ignorance, poverty and backwardness. By repudiating the greatest engine of liberation it is nothing more than an hour devoted to anti-humanism. It invites people to become sanctimonious do-gooders by turning off trivial appliances for a trivial amount of time, in service of some ill-understood abstraction called “The Earth”, all the while hypocritically retaining the real benefits of electricity. People who want to do without electricity to prove their symbolic solidarity with nature should shut off their fridge, stove, microwave, computer, water heater, lights, TV and all other appliances for a month, not an hour. And pop down to the cardiac unit at the hospital and shut the power off there too.

I don’t want to go back to nature. Haiti just went back to nature. For humans, living in “Nature” meant a short life span marked by violence, disease and ignorance. People who work to end poverty and disease are struggling against nature. I hope they believe in their own cause enough to leave their lights on…

If, after all this, we are going to take the view that the remaining air emissions outweigh all the benefits of electricity, and therefore we ought to be shamed into sitting in darkness for an hour, like naughty children who have been caught doing something very bad, then we are setting up unspoiled nature as an absolute, transcendent ideal that obliterates all other ethical and humane obligations. No thanks. I like visiting nature but I don’t want to live there, and I refuse to accept the idea that civilization is something to be ashamed of.

Earth Hour FAIL....

Two more pictures...

Sad Muppets Unite: Earth Hour 2010

Earth Hour Verging on Occult

By David Seymour

Earth Hour fails at fighting climate change, so what is it about?

If previous Earth Hours are any indication, this Saturday’s annual ritual will possess a curious blend of contradictory properties. Switching off the lights for an hour will have little effect on climate change, practical or symbolic, yet it will likely follow the established trend of growing participation each year. All good contradictions deserve an explanation, but the most likely ones in this case don’t bode well for our Western liberal Enlightenment tradition.

Earth Hour will not reduce the consumption of resources. Even without the parties, concerts, or candle burning, Earth Hour could only delay consumption, not reduce it. A more effective way to pursue the goal of Earth Hour would be to calculate one’s annual income, divide it by the number of hours in a year and (cleanly) burn that much money—less money equals less future consumption.

Some might say that misses the point, Earth hour is meant to be a symbol. But it won’t “send a message” to politicians (at least not the intended one), and its hollowness causes other problems. As a thought experiment, why isn’t it Earth two hours, or a whole day? And how many Earth Hour participants really enjoy sitting in the dark, as opposed to burning candles, playing flashlight tag and attending Earth Hour concerts? The real message Earth Hour sends politicians is that people think this fights climate change, and any policies which actually restrict access to carbon-based energy would be political suicide.

At the same time, Earth Hour dims the image of carbon emission reduction policies by associating them with hardship. If climate change mitigation policies were sold as policies of sacrifice, they’d be even less popular than they are already. The best escape route from this charge of sacrifice is that new technologies (which, the story goes, we would have adopted long ago anyway) will make the shift to a low-carbon economy painless. Yet going without light for an hour celebrates sacrifice while renouncing technology.

This is not only the wrong image, it is the wrong policy. Earth Hour preaches deprivation (in principle, if not in practice) but wealthier countries are better environmental stewards than poor nations. That’s because people tend to look after their most basic needs first and the environment second. Saving the Amazon rainforest as vital carbon sinks is good and well if you live in a country like Canada, but some people in Brazil are desperate enough for survival that the army must fight illegal deforestation. Wealth and technology should be the celebrated hope for solving problems like climate change; instead, Earth Hour symbolically switches them off.

Earth Hour is not just ineffective at promoting carbon emission reduction. Politically and practically, it achieves the opposite. Why would somebody who cared deeply about climate change want to be part of an event so wrong-headed? The conclusion that Earth Hour is not primarily about climate change—rather that climate change is a proxy for some other cause—becomes harder to escape with each passing Earth Hour.

Some argue the other reason for Earth Hour events are to simply have a good time. Coca-Cola is a major sponsor and they know how to back a good festival –just look at the Olympics. The festival hypothesis may explain the motives of mainstream participants, but not the chosen theme of the festival.

In contrast, one U.S. think tank is promoting Human Achievement Hour, designed to coincide with Earth Hour. It’s a meditation on economic and technological progress that, since 1800, has doubled life expectancies and fed six times more people than ever before. Human achievement all but eradicated countless diseases such as polio and tuberculosis; it also puts 300,000 new books on the shelves every year, and so on.

Anyone with the slightest intuition about modern society, though, would bet long odds against Human Achievement Hour being anything more than a fringe event. Popular culture has moved away from the values that created our prosperous society by choosing a festival that celebrates downplaying or opposing our wealth and technology.

At the most flourishing time in human history, popular culture takes human achievement for granted. Instead, it seeks symbolism that renounces the Enlightenment values of the last two hundred years—quantifiable data, measurable results, reason, and the liberation of humanity and nature from the effects of poverty which destroys both human souls and nature. In the broad sweep of history, movements such as Earth Hour are usually described as occult.

ACT on Campus at Earth Hour Canterbury 2008

Fan mail

We've received a few emails from our supporters around the world. Here is one of the more amusing ones...

Name: im not a dumbass like u idiots

Message: wat the hell is wrong with you people global warming is not being taught like a religion!!!
explain the australian drought, the aussie bushfire and floods AT THE SAME TIME!!!! it is "mother nature" fighting back.
yes there have been cool and warm periods on earth before but this is extreme weather.
if we dont do something soon the planet will die, ur children will have a horrible dieing planet to live on because of you idiotic people.
i blame you for this crisis

"Turn on your lights!" - Joseph Farah

From 8:30 to 9:30 tonight, lights will be turned off all over the world – from the Eiffel Tower to the Great Pyramids of Giza to the decadent marquees of Las Vegas and Broadway.

So be it.

The occasion is "Earth Hour" – organized by the World Wildlife Fund to persuade world leaders, as if they needed any more persuading, to take of what's left of your money and use it to cool off the planet.

I have a better idea.

Be sure to switch on every light in your home between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. tonight as a way to protest this madness.

Let me start at the beginning.

Man-made global warming is a hoax – a fraud being perpetrated on people worldwide as part of a power grab by elitists determined to steal what remains of your personal freedom.

It's not science. It's raw politics.

Czech President Václav Klaus presents the truth about global warming in his book "Blue Planet in Green Shackles"

No amount of man-made activity, certainly not illuminating lights, is going to cause even the most infinitesimal heating of the planet.

Further, the real science shows the planet is no longer warming for any reason whatsoever! The temperature of the Earth is actually cooling slightly, and has been for about five years.

Warming and cooling of the planet are natural cycles that have occurred from the beginning of time. Ask any scientist. In fact, these cycles occur on other planets where there is no life and no industry. How does Al Gore explain that?

But worse than the lie is the insidious strategy behind it. You are being indoctrinated to believe in this fraud so you can be more easily manipulated – so you won't squeal quite as loud when your wealth is confiscated, so you won't object when you're told (or your children are told some day) that the population must be limited to save the planet, when you're told that means you can't have any more children.

That's where this plot leads.

Many are falling for it – in spite of all the evidence to the contrary.

"Global warming" is taught like a religion in your schools. And that's just what it is – it's a throwback to pagan Earth worship.

"Global warming" is taught as a way of life in your colleges and universities.

"Global warming" is preached as fact in your new media.

"Global warming" is stealthily propagated as a real threat in your entertainment – including in the best show on television, Fox's "24."

"Global warming" is, in fact, the new name for global control of the populace. It's the new name for worldwide fascism. It's the new excuse for communism or whatever name you choose for the coming tyranny.

Don't be fooled.

(Column continues below)




Don't participate.

Don't believe it.

Don't fall for it.

Resist.

You can begin tonight by turning on your lights when your less-informed, easily led neighbors are going dark.

Make a statement.

Let there be light tonight.

Evil loves darkness, so it's no surprise that some very evil people are promoting it once again. Don't be seduced.

Don't be like the sheep led to slaughter.

Fight back.

Think!

Do you really believe this hoax?

On what basis?

Do you really believe carbon dioxide leads to a warmer planet? There is no evidence to suggest it. Further, man is responsible for producing only a tiny portion of the carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. And carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, as you are being told. It is a naturally occurring gas that is vital to the support of life on the planet.

Use your brain.

Turn on the lights.


- WorldNetDaily.com

Earth hour increases electricity usage

Andrew Landeryou presents this graph of Sydney's power demand on three Saturdays, the final one being Earth Hour. This past Saturday there was a large spike in usage BEFORE Earth Hour, presumably as people put forward the things they were intending to use electricity for so they could "save" power during Earth Hour.

There is some criticism of the figures on his blog, so the graph isn't definitive. But it certainly gets you thinking...

Hat tip: Not PC

The Herald calls for photos of earth hour

Yes, that’s right! Not only can you get your eco-friendly electricity photos from Earth Hour published on the Anti Earth Hour blog, you may be able to get them into the Herald! They require a comment with every photo…

I’ve submitted the photo of our house, with the following message:

We thought long and hard about the most environmentally friendly way to light our house for earth hour. Candles were out of the question, the carbon emissions are too high (most are made from parrafin wax, derived from oil) and they produce polluting smoke that I wouldn’t want my young son to be breathing. We’ve been lectured for years now about the dangers of second-hand smoke. Torches were just as bad, as disposable batteries are toxic and use a large amount of energy to produce, having higher CO2 emissions than mains electricity.

Furthermore both candles and batteries are mainly made in China these days, and the emissions from transport must also be taken into account. Candles are also a fire hazard, and because of their inefficiency are far more expensive than electricity.

So we finally settled on NZ-made renewable hydro-electricity as the lowest-emission, most eco-friendly way to light our house.

Update: The photo is on the Herald website, along with Dave Mann's photo.

Toronto Lit Up

This just in from Toronto, USA

We had an absolute blast for Earth Hour. I rented a searchlight and lit up all of Toronto.
Had about twenty of my best friends over. Everyone had a great time. Most people from the neighbourhood came over and laughed and chatted with us. A couple enviro wackjobs complained that I was killing the Earth. But I have to say that 95% of the response was very positive and very level headed.
This was so worth it. Thank you Earth hour.

Bright Lights in Auckland

Dave Mann from Auckland tells how he and his family celebrated Earth Hour '09...


"We celebrated Earth Hour in Auckland at our home by switching on every light in the house, including the christmas fairy lights, and we ran our car engine with the lights on full beam and the indicators going just for good measure.

I had a little drive around the neighbourhood and I noticed several houses doing something similar and I beeped my horn and clapped and we called out to each other and waved.

We had a great Earth Hour celebrating mankind's wonderful achievements in dragging ourselves out of the middle ages and into the age of science and reason."

An Earth Hour Prayer

A prayer left on my blog that I felt I must share:

Don't forget to walk around your garden, hugging all the trees as you go. You could even bow down and pray to them if you prefer.

Our Mother of Earth,
Hallowed is thy name,
Your end will come,
When our lovely sun,
Turns into a Red Giant.

Give us this day,
Our daily dread,
And reduce our excretions of carbon,
as we abort our populations.

Lead us not to our vehicles,
But deliver us back to the good old days,
Where life was sweet and easy,
And light bulbs (and women) weren't yet invented.

For thy Earth is our temple,
Our will is our destiny,
Until the Red Giant comes.

Amen.

Post left by Manawatu Christian Apologetics Society

Don’t Participate in 60 Minutes of Apolitical Ecology

La Ivolution - non commercial also helped to spread the message:

Dont Participate in 60′ minutes Apolitical Ecology
Earth Hour

isn’t an Ecological Revolution

- it’s an Ecological Pollution

Earth Hour is a school level campaign for a dead ecology
we don’t participate to this colorless and apolitical Eco Sleep

...

I am proposing a worldwide strategy to discredit the theories of man-made global warming, starting with the 60 minutes of ‘Anti-Earth Hour’.

On the same date and time as Earth Hour, March 29th, 2008 at 8pm, your local time, join the fight against the lights off hour by turning your lights ON.

Getting Global

From Θεαμαπάτες & Δικτυώματα - their blog is not in English but hey they still linked to us!

Edison Hour Wedding

I'm pleased to report that the wedding went well. There must have been 200 people at the wedding, so that's a good 150 cars, plus the carbon emissions from the aeroplanes that transported a number of out-of-town friends and family. There was a sound system with the volume cranked up and heaters on full-bore to take the chill out of the Christchurch air. Many photographs taken with the flash on: somebody really should tell those people of the damage they are doing to the environment by taking those photos...

Some chilled champagne, beer and punch at the reception afterwards. And heck, the several miles of Christmas lights all strung up round the walls lent a nice aura to the room.

all things considered; an especially nice way to spend the afternoon/evening, and to use a lot of electricity doing it.

;)

From Greenland

Just received via email:

"Thank you, you have at least one supporter in the "warming" Nuuk, Greenland, where we are having the coldest march in many years. Lots of snow too."

Ole Heinrich