Earth Hour 60

As I prepare for Earth Hour 60, I have mixed feelings over the event. Anything that makes people think about their energy consumption really is a good thing. However, many people believe that the concept of Earth Hour 60 is misguided and actually increases emissions.

Looking at the Earth Hour page on Wikipedia showed some interesting opinions on the subject. The criticisms generally centered around asking if electricity reduction was reduced, CO2 emissions were reduced, and if this was the right time of year to be running such an event.

To answer these, I looked at the Earth Hour web site, and found the following quote.

Earth Hour does not purport to be an energy/carbon reduction exercise, it is a symbolic action. Therefore, we do not engage in the measurement of energy/carbon reduction levels for the hour itself. Earth Hour is an initiative to encourage individuals, businesses and governments around the world to take accountability for their ecological footprint and engage in dialogue and resource exchange that provides real solutions to our environmental challenges. Participation in Earth Hour symbolises a commitment to change beyond the hour.

This sounds fairly equivocal that the concept of Earth Hour is not designed to do much more than make people think about their impact on the earth. After all, one hour is only about 0.05% of the year. Even if there were zero emissions from that one hour every year, global emissions would still be about 99.95% of what they would have been anyway.

The critics who suggest that the event should be held on the shortest day of the year really do not understand what Earth Hour 60 is. You see, this is a global event. Whilst holding it on the shortest day of the year in the UK might sounds like a great idea, that makes it the longest day of the year in Australia. So, what the people at Earth Hour have done is decided to hold the event somewhere in between, near the equinox.

I think the greatest impact in Earth Hour 60 is the potential for something ongoing. It is for people to think about their energy usage and their impact on the earth. And it is these behavioral changes that can make some real differences.