Earth Hour: Tooth fairy delusion or one hour vigil?
Image source: http://timblair.net | Lights out for Sydney, Australia 2007
An http://greenprinteronline.com dispatch.
Earth Hour is tonight, March 29th from 8 to 9 pm. The idea is to turn off the lights as a symbolic gesture that us citizens, business owners, uber-corporations (hello, Google’s black screen, hello McDonalds in Toronto saving 10 000 kilowatt hours) local governments and non-profit groups are taking climate change seriously.
Despite gripes that Earth Hour falls on the NCAA basketball regional, it’s lights out for over 23 major cities worldwide like Toronto and Bangkok.
Globally, landmarks like Sydney Opera House, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco’s Alcatraz prison and Chicago’s Sears Tower are also included in the event.
It’s been dubbed a WWF led “spread of soft fascism” and “a new-age, tooth-fairy delusion” by global warming skeptics (wow, they still exist?) and it has four million strong Facebook group following.
Whatever the goal behind WWF’s Earth Hour, it’s a positive message spurring many unexpected and inspiring actions like the {4 One Earth I Will} initiative in Vancouver, where local residents make a visual pledge to take action on climate change.
What’s more interesting than the beaten “soft fascism” idea is that with climate change becoming the new religion, Earth Hour has all reminisces of a vigil - a “ritual devotion observed on the eve of a holy day”.
For citizen groups, businesses, governments and your neighbors, it’s more than just sitting in the dark, it sends a message that “yes we take climate change seriously”.
So, keeping in line with the theme of buying local to reduce emissions, us Vancouverites at Green Printer want to give kudos to local businesses for flicking off, including:
1. Telus
2. BC Hydro
3. Small Energy Group - tracking the energy usage
5. Better Business Bureau of Vancouver Island
And, it’s not just business, its entire communities too, who are taking action.
The 170 residents in the northern B.C., Canada town of Hartley Bay are taking Earth Hour’s mandate a step further and turning off their power generator for the hour. “No heat. Not lights. No nothing,” said Hartley Bay Coun. Cameron Hill, a member of the Gitga’at First Nation.
Save trees, time and money the climate friendly way with our recycled paper, sustainable printing methods and eco-calculator with Green Printer - more details at http://greenprinteronline.com. Now, wasn’t that easy?
Tags: , advice, bc hydro, Better Business Bureau, british columbia, business objects, car share, case studies, city of Vancouver, conscious, Earth hour, eco audit, eco-friendly printing, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, Environmental, environmental printing, FSC, Global Warming, google, graphic design, green, green business, green graphic design, green printing, greenwashing, guide, IT, Jawl Properties Ltd., marketing, mcdonalds, Morguard Investments Ltd, Òlimate change, Orion Homes Ltd., PCF, post-consumer recycled, postcards, presentation folders, professional organizations, public relations, rackcards, raincity grill, recycled business cards, service industry, sustainable, sustainable printing, telus, tips, Toronto, vancouver, world wildlife fund, wwf
April 9th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Earth Hour caught its fair share of flak, but the point of the event was misunderstood. Unfortunately, we are still in the “raising awareness” stage, and we haven’t yet been able to progress into the “actually doing something about it” stage.
This event highlighted the importance of individual action, something that is severely lacking in the United States. Here, we too easily shove our problems off to higher and higher levels of government (national and international) to solve the climate crisis, but then we wonder why nothing has been accomplished.
Kudos to all, individuals, businesses and governments, for getting involved! I hope that turning off the lights turned on the mind’s light bulb for some people.
March 30th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Global warming, climate change, or whatever we’re calling it this week is becoming the de facto religion of the far left, complete with sacrament-like events such as earth hour, as the author correctly indicates. The battle against climate change has become the “moral equivalent of war;” a cause behind which to rally to justify increased government regulation and a loss of personal rights and freedoms.
Anyone who thinks ultra-conservation is the right thing to do has that right. But I have my right to use resources as I see fit, using my own personal moral judgments (not yours and not the government’s) to draw the line between “necessary” and “wasteful.”
April 9th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
[...] Van Wyck’s thrilling and haunting ideas are as relevant to the controversial idea that we have already set in motion some of the effects of climate change as much as they are relevant to the idea that we still crave symbolic ceremonies like Earth Day or Earth Hour. [...]
April 9th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
[...] Van Wyck’s thrilling and haunting ideas are as relevant to the controversial idea that we have already set in motion some of the effects of climate change as much as they are relevant to the idea that we still crave symbolic ceremonies like Earth Day or Earth Hour. [...]
April 9th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
[...] Van Wyck’s thrilling and haunting ideas are as relevant to the controversial idea that we have already set in motion some of the effects of climate change as much as they are relevant to the idea that we still crave symbolic ceremonies like Earth Day or Earth Hour. [...]