(HT: The Road Kill Diaries)
From the Earth Hour website:
"At 8:30 PM on Saturday 26th March 2011, lights will switch off around the globe for Earth Hour and people will commit to actions that go beyond the hour"Rather than feeling guilty and doing penance (that will do absolutely nothing to help the environment) for our use of electricity, this family will be celebrating the wonder and innovation of electricity tonight. We will turn on our porch light on at 8:30. We will be grateful that we are no longer living in the Dark Ages. That we have high-tech NICU units for our most fragile babies. That we have an electric pump that pulls clean water out of the ground. That we can Google. That dentists have sterile equipment. That we have life-saving AED units. None of these things would be possible without electricity.
So, how will you be celebrating Earth Hour?
5 comments:
By turning on every electronic device and light I can get my hands on!
I'm not celebrating EARTH HOUR...I think it's ridiculous. I was probably using lots of power by watching television or being on the internet while I was supposed to be turning off power at some point.
I just don't buy into the globalist environMENTAL agenda.
I do not think that environmentalists are trying to abolish electricity, or make us feel guilty that we use it. Of course there are a few people who get carried away with passion, but there are people like that in all such movements.
I think the point of Earth Hour is to raise awareness, and help people think about the issue. The purpose is larger than simply saving resources for one hour (which of course will not have a huge impact on the environment).
Being environmentalist does not mean being anti-technology, anti-energy usage, or anti-human. To the contrary, the more technology we develop the more efficiently we can accomplish what we need to accomplish. But let's not forget that it was that same technology that allowed us to identify environmental problems in the first place.
I respect and use technology, and I believe that meeting human needs is a high priority, but I don't believe that human excess is acceptable. Where we can do things to help our environment, we should, because it helps us and it helps our children.
We need to build conversational bridges between environmentalists and social conservatives. Let's work on dialoguing, and make relationships more important than ideologies.
Thanks for the comment Chris. I have no problem with encouraging people to be good stewards of the earth. I'm a huge animal lover and I have done my fair share of educating the public on the plight of endangered animals and supporting my local zoo (volunteering and campaigning for the zoo's levy). I have also participated in fundraising events for an organization that helps endangered animals.
I am also glad that the Cuyahoga River is no longer burning and that we have extremely clean air and water in this country.
However, many of the trendy environmental policies are shortsighted and end up causing more harm than good. The banning of DDT has caused untold numbers of human deaths. The CFL light bulbs being forced on us contain mercury and are hazardous to humans and the environment. Ethanol (which is more expensive than regular gasoline, despite heavy government subsidies) is causing food shortages and even starvation in some parts of the world. Kyoto would have imposed punitive restrictions on the U.S., while allowing China and other large-scale polluters to continue business as usual.
I'm not against good stewardship of our planet, just dumb environmental policies that are overreactive and short-sighted.
That makes a lot of sense to me. My question then is why we should choose to celebrate Earth day (which is designed to spread awareness about an issue that everyone agrees on) by rebelling against it. If there is a difference between good and bad environmental policies, wouldn't it be more productive to join with those who promote earth day in their passion for stewardship (by going along with the symbolic awareness raising scheme, even if it isn't inherently helpful) and help educate people about the difference between those two sets of policies?
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