Earth Hour

"earth hour is a piece of shit

why….

its so pointless…nobody actually realises that its not helping melbournes or the worlds electricity resources. Also most people even believe that its suppose to show you how it would be without energy like a poor person…funny that you turn off your lights but keep your tv, heater and fridge on. Its fucking shit. All that it will do is save maybe 0.05% on your monthly electricity bill…welldone!"

Someone I know wrote this recently and posted it. Aside from being grammatically handicapped, it is a little bit ignorant. Yes, the 10.1% drop in energy use during Earth Hour will still hardly make a dent in the yearly greenhouse gas emissions for Australia and the rest of the globe. Yes, there were some people that didn’t get it and left some things on while turning off the lights. Yes, unfortunately I didn’t take part, since I was in a restaurant and wasn’t sure if they’d kick me out if I told them to turn everything off. But I thought it was clear that Earth Hour is a symbolic event? I thought it was about making a statement about climate change, not showing people what it’s like to be poor.

Nobody is pretending that one hour in the (366 x 24 =)8784 hours of the year is going to make any significant difference to greenhouse gas emissions. What Earth Hour was about, from my point of view, was symbollically stating that we are prepared to fight climate change and are serious about making it a national priority.

All problems such as climate change, poverty, slavery, etc., cannot be simply combatted on a global scale. They have to start locally, with people taking a personal interest in making a change in their life to help the global effort. As was said on the ZeroSeven trip last year, to change the world, you have to start with your country; to change your country, you have to start with your state; to change your state, you have to start with your community; to change your community, you have to start with your family; and to change your family, you have to start with yourself.

So to you, Mr. MySpace Pessimist, stop criticising what everyone else is doing. At least, understand what it is you’re criticising. Also, hate less?