This is one of the official Earth Hour videos for this year.  Here is the Earth Hour website.

Earth Hour is next week, March 27th.  Last year I didn’t think much of this event and I still don’t, but this year I’m going to turn my lights off and take my dog for a walk, (which I do every night anyway) during Earth Hour  — and see how many lights are on.  I might even take a few photos of a dark street, which shouldn’t be too hard to find.  My city is in debt, like a lot of U.S. cities, and they are turning off street lights to save money.   I can actually see the stars at night in some neighborhoods.   Light pollution is down because of the bad economy.  That’s good, but the reason for it isn’t.   I also see, from the official site, that Wells Fargo Bank is a “featured corporate partner” in Earth Hour.  There is a Wells Fargo Bank on my walking route and they leave most of their lights on all night, lighting up the entire block.   I will report right here whether they turned off all of their lights or not.*   (Want to make any bets?)

Turning off lights for one hour is great, but it’s not going to stop global warming.  The purpose of the event is to raise awareness.  The official website writes:

The movement symbolizes that by working together, each of us can make a positive impact in this fight, protecting our future and that of future generations.

Overall, there can be some unintentional messages with events like this.   Turning lights off for one hour while coal plants are belching out toxic pollution and smog settles over our cities for another evening  seems pretty lightweight to me.   I hope no ones gets the idea that turning off their  lights for one hour is where it stops.  Earth Hour should involve some sort of climate action like shutting down a coal plant for an hour.  Civil disobedience (as advocated by James Hansen and Al Gore) should probably be a part of any real future Earth Hours, because we are running out of time to stop global warming.   Or,  Earth Hour should spur people to action in whatever way they can contribute, but it should be a way of life, something that people do all the time, even if it’s just talking to people about climate change.  There is a big lack of knowledge in the U.S. about what climate change is.  Everyone, no matter who you are, can help to change that.

In addition, driving around to get photos to upload, and then turning on computers all over the world to upload these photos uses energy.  Probably more than what would be used if this event wasn’t going on. In other words, what is the carbon footprint of this event?  (We will never know, because no one is measuring it.)

After Earth Hour is over, [...]