In Defense of Earth Hour (Part One)

Today, at 8:30pm, is Earth Hour. You have the opportunity to both raise awareness about climate change and take some action. The action part comes from turning off your lights and appliances for an hour tonight, beginning at 8:30pm.

This is the third annual Earth Hour. According to the World Wildlife Fund’s Earth Hour website, “Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change. Only a year later and Earth Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries participating.”

I’m happy to say that Whistler is a part of this global event. This year, the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) alone has committed to:

• turning off festive lighting in the Village;
• turning of the lights at the Village Fire Hall, Municipal Hall, the Public Safety building, Spruce Grove Field House and the Public Works Yard;
• turning off all village heat tracing; and
• turning off the lighting at the Lost Lake cross-country ski trails.

Tonight we are also hosting a community ball hockey game in Village Square during Earth Hour, and have partnered with several other organizations and businesses to turn off their lights. The Whistler Sliding Centre, home of the 2010 Winter Olympic sliding events, is the most iconic building here that is participating.

This is no small thing – and the RMOW is not alone amongst local governments. Pemberton has challenged Whistler to see which municipality has the greatest reduction. I say, bring it on!

So, why have I called this article a defense of Earth Hour? Oh Earth Hour, if only you could be all things to all people. We both know you can’t, but you may be becoming a victim of your own success, and I’m here to help you out. You need some additional PR.

I’ve heard (almost) all the complaints before. Here are some: “Earth Hour sends the wrong message because one hour does nothing; every hour should be Earth Hour to make a difference; this event doesn’t get at the heart of climate change, so I don’t want to participate;  However, this year brings a new complaint, and a familiar set of grievances about what this event should do. Two articles have been brought to my attention, an opinion editorial (OpEd) in the Times Colonist (TC), and a blog post by a respected academic. This post will begin with the OpEd.

David Seymour, senior policy analyst with the Winnipeg based right wing think tank the Frontier Centre, tries very hard to establish Earth Hour as a “cult”. While laughable in its attempt, the TC published it. It was probably an attempt to satisfy some juvenile notion that every issue has two sides, and calling an event “cultish” has a sniff of controversy in the hope that it attracts readers.

Every paper needs to sell, so let’s just keep that in mind when evaluating Mr. Seymour’s claims.

This was the title of his article: “Earth Hour: It’s an annual occult exercise. Festival has no effect on climate, and sends the wrong message.”

Well, Mr. Seymour, get your facts straight – we measure such things. Whistler had one of the most substantial reductions in BC during the 2008 Earth Hour (reduced community electrical load of 5.6%), but last year, sadly, we INCREASED load during Earth Hour 2009 of 1.4% (one of the worst in BC). Last year Pemberton really did do a fantastic job of turning it off – achieving a 4.6% reduction in electrical load (2^nd in the Province). That is a reduction in the consumption of resources. Luckily in BC most of our electricity comes from hydro, but not all of it. And this is a global event, so this type of behaviour is being replicated all over the world.

But let’s be a bit fairer. Seymour does claim “Earth Hour will not reduce the consumption of resources. Even without the parties, concerts, or candle burning, Earth Hour could only delay consumption, not reduce it.” Here, he’s making a more specific point, and a logical leap.

Earth Hour doesn’t claim to be the singular source that will solve our collective problem around the global reduction of use in energy resources. That would be a tall claim for any event, let alone this one. By accusing Earth Hour of being something it isn’t and then saying it fails to meet that standard is illogical. It’s also known as a “straw person argument” if we’re getting technical.

It’s hard to tell if Seymour is intentionally ignorant, or just generally that way, but I will leave that up to you to determine. I could go on about his article, but suffice it to say, he accomplished his goal of getting noticed, even if he had to compromise sound argumentative skills to get there.

What Earth Hour does do, in addition to providing people like Seymour a larger than normal platform for their ridiculous ideas, is bring millions of people together to raise awareness about climate change and take small steps in the right direction. That’s right, small steps.

Climate change is a complex problem, which requires action on multiple levels, in multiple ways, and in multiple formats. I have tried to rack my brain to find a similar event that mobilizes the actions of so many, on an issue that is known for talking mainly in scientific terms that are hard to relate to (CO2, CO2e, PPM), and brings together the multiple sectors of society that need to in order to tackle the enormous challenge that is climate change.

In my next post, I will talk about how Earth Hour changed my mind and turned me into a supporter.

Tagged as: Climate Change, energy, sustainability