This Saturday, at 8:30 p.m., the lights will go out in Ottawa as local residents join an expected one billion people worldwide for Earth Hour 2011. The annual event, which started in Australia in 2007, encourages people to turn off their lights for one hour to save the Earth.
The City of Ottawa and local businesses have jumped on the Earth Hour bandwagon by promoting the event. Ten million Canadians participated in Earth Hour 2010.
Although the World Wildlife Federation, which organizes Earth Hour, certainly has good intentions, the event has no significant effect on overall electricity usage or environmental impact.
Last year, Hydro Ottawa recorded a six-per-cent reduction in electricity usage during Earth Hour. That may be enough to power 58 homes for a month, according to the utility company, but Ottawa has tens of thousands of homes and they need power all year. The impact of Earth Hour is a mere drop of water in an ocean of electricity-sucking homes, offices and factories.
Earth Hour allows citizens, businesses and governments to claim they are being green, without doing anything to earn it. We can soothe our consciences by saying we turned off the lights for one hour, while ignoring the other 23 hours of that day, as well as the other 364 days of that year.
While we sit in candlelight we can ignore the electricity being used to heat our homes and cool our food. And once Earth Hour is over, we’ll go do the power-intensive activities we didn’t do during Earth Hour – such as washing clothes and dishes, or watching TV.
Supporters of the event say that it is meant to start a conversation about the environment.
While more education on this issue is needed, there comes a point when raising awareness is no longer enough. It’s time for action, but it isn’t coming from Earth Hour.
This year, the organizers are encouraging participants to go “Beyond the Hour” to make changes in other parts of their lives. But the threshold for participation in Earth Hour remains low enough that anyone can participate, and not high enough to have an impact.
Participating in Earth Hour doesn’t cost money or very much time, and turning off the lights for an hour certainly won’t hurt anyone. The real risk is that of overstating its impact, making it a feel-good gesture for those with the concern but not the will to make real change.
While some people, organizations and governments, participate in Earth Hour as part of a significant, broader program of sustainability, too many use it as a token gesture to the cause of “green.”
There are still those who convince themselves that participating in Earth Hour will be as meaningful as biking to work, and there are still governments that endorse Earth Hour but refuse to make policy to address the real challenges the environment faces.
So on March 26, turn off the lights for Earth Hour. Enjoy the thrill of participating in a global event. But don’t think it means anything more than that.