[paul.fr]

Does the planet need saving...from Earth Hour?

Turn out. Take action.
Be part of this historic event.
March 28, 2009, 8:30 pm local time
World Wildlife Fund is asking individuals, businesses, governments and organizations around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour – to make a global statement of concern about climate change and to demonstrate commitment to finding solutions.

http://www.earthhourus.org/main.php

[Karsten]

I think Earth Hour is a colossal waste of time and results in way too many people feeling good about themselves and their "actions", while nothing really changes.

First of all, 1 hour per year equals 0.07% of the year. Doing something for one hour and feeling good about it is pathetic considering that we may have to reduce our consumption levels by 50-80% forever if what we have shall be shared fairly among 6.5 billion humans.

Secondly, turning lights off does very little. If you want to do something, you should begin with something big. More than just a symbolic action. I calculated last year that my family alone reduced our electricity consumption by a larger amount than the whole town of 2500 people had they participated in Earth Hour (which they did not) just by not using the electric clothes drier all year. No, this could not be seen from space.

Thirdly, while electricity consumption may go down, it is debatable though if electricity production goes down as well. Power plants may not respond to an hour-long dip in the consumption. I posted a question in regard to this a few weeks ago. It seems electricity either gets dumped, transferred somewhere else, or possibly stored. It probably depends on the power plant. I cannot imagine that much happens when people use less electricity only for one hour. The way I understand it, the same amount of electricity is produced, the same amount of green-house gases are emitted, the same pollution occurs. 

We need more than popular statements and easy actions. They result, in my opinion, in complacency and unjustified patting oneself on the shoulder. Earth Hour may be a start for some, but it is not a good start for anyone. Should we really  support actions that result in people doing very little for one meager hour, who go back to what they did before after that hour, and feel good about themselves for a much longer time? If people are willing to only go as far as Earth Hour asks you to go, we are screwed.

[justaskin]

Does the planet need saving...from Earth Hour?

Yes.
Until we develop renewable non polluting technology that is superior to existing fossil fuel based technology then we are going nowhere.Having obtained a standard of living people are not going to go back to subsistence living.So instead of stunts like Earth Hour lets put all our energy into making renewable energy work.

Cheers
justaskin

[Chemistry4me]

Now I know absolute jack nothing about Global Warming.
But turning the lights off for one hour? What is that going to achieve?
They should have: turn your automobiles off for one hour. []
Howzat for an idea? Or is that even more pointless than turning the lights off? []

[justaskin]

The only thing I can think is all those people who turn off all their lights must be living in the dark. []

Cheers
justaskin

[Chemistry4me]

What do you have to sign up for?

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[Chemistry4me]

Well it is 8:30 p.m. here and it isn't even that dark! I guess I won't need any lights then. []

[Don_1]

While I agree that this action is unlikely to have any tangible effect on fuel consumption, it will, hopefully have a symbolic effect.

We do need to use the resources of our planet with much greater care and concern for the implications.

I'm all for it.