I’m going to take a controversial position on the popular ‘hour’. I think it’s a waste of all our time.  It’s a publicity stunt orchestrated by the WWF to boost their exposure and nothing else. (Since when did their mandate include policing my electricity use? How’s the work on the Panda’s going? Yeah, let’s get some of those animals you’re working on saved before you move on to what I’m doing.)

But beyond me not understanding why its a WWF thing, let me explain why I think it’s a waste of our time. It’s a waste of our time because we now treat it like a holiday. Something we do once a year for an hour and then we don’t give a damn afterwards. Earth Hour’s affect on getting people to cut their electricity use every day is nothing. So it’s an epic fail. The goal shouldn’t be to cut electrical demand for an hour, it should be to reduce demand every single day. But by sensationalizing it, you lose the message long term. Short term yeah it has an effect, but the object should be something long term.

Also, by sensationalizing this stupid idea you’ve forced people into doing it or be looked at as an asshole. I remember last year someone tweeting something along the lines of “Oh the ____ building didn’t turn off their power, those jerks. Insensitive assholes. I’ll boycott them.” and people RTed it a lot. Now I don’t know about you, but I like to do something because I want to do it and NOT because everyone else is. It’s the old “If everyone else jumps off the bridge, do you?” that your parents would bring up.

I recycle aggressively because I’ve always been told it’s a good thing to do. I compost as much as I can or put it into the Green Bin. I reuse things. We all know the motto “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”. Why do we know that? Because it was something simple we could do every day. Another one I remember as a kid was “Turn off the water when you’re brushing your teeth.” They don’t market that anymore, it’s sad, they should! These campaigns were successful at changing my behaviour because they were things we could do every day!

Now people will say “Oh but global warming…”  like there’s 100% infallible data on the topic. Well, if you’ve payed attention to the topic there’s a LOT of opposite view points on the matter. There was the whole “Stolen Emails” story that unveiled that the people researching the topic were faking the numbers to make it look like global warming. Last summer we barely had a summer in Toronto! It was so cold. This winter it was incredibly warm! Meanwhile places like Florida, Texas, and other normally hot places were getting pounded by snow! Explain how global warming creates colder summers and snow in traditionally hot places? You can’t. Now you can point to the past 1000 years how temperatures have gone up. If you only look at the past 1000 it does look like the world is warming incredibly fast. But now let’s look at the history of our plant just for comparison.

Now I really didn’t want this to become a Global Warming argument. I think by all accounts I’d agree we’d all be healthier if we reduced our power consumption. If we had and used more electric cars. If we stopped being so damn dependent on oil. I don’t think anyone can argue the HEALTH benefits by reducing consumption. The point I want to make is turning one hour a year into a kind of Holiday is NOT the way to create the kind of sustainable change that takes hold in our consciousness and stays with us. No, we need to instead be reminded daily to turn off the lights when you leave a room. Take a walk to the store instead of a car.

If you want to create change, have ‘earth hour’ be a weekly thing, where we flip off the power for an hour. Make it common place, make it readily on our minds and not just once a year. Reward people! The Government of Canada should offer rebates through our Hydro providers. If you can cut your electricity use from the month prior, you get a financial credit (a penny or two per kilowatt hour saved). If it goes up, nothing. The point is, we need to be working on reducing power consumption every god damned day, and not just because the World Wildlife Fund told us to, but because we WANT to.

So while you’re all sitting wherever you may be in the pitch black feeling fucking proud you turned off the lights and ‘did your part’ in the fight against climate change. I’ll proudly have the lights ON in the room I’m in, knowing that every day I do my part to reduce my consumption. Every day I make this place better by turning off the lights. By using my dimmer switch to reduce to power use. By unscrewing a couple bulbs in my bathroom (it has 4 over the sink).

Who’s the better person in the long run? One hour of no power, or 365 of reduced usage? Enjoy Earth Hour you sensationalists wagon hoppers. Talk to me when you actually want to make this a better place to live.

Earth Hour is Pointless.