Earth Hour: I turned on all the lights to celebrate

I wonder how many tree huggers have really supported Earth Hour yesterday night? Yes, it seems like a wonderful idea to gather people from around the world making a good symbolic gesture to our mother nature by switching off the lights for an hour (8.30 - 9.30 pm). Wow, after two years since this activity was started, do people still believe this bullshit that they really can make a difference by that?


I seriously doubt what can this campaign really do? Changing the perception of earthlings that our mother Earth is so ill and as the children of Gaia, we can contribute our individual effort to change the fate of Earth? No, it's just a license for smugs who are the real culprit of energy wastage to feel good about themselves in that puny one hour. Anyone who brags about how they did Earth Hour and how awesome they are for doing it should post their typical monthly electricity usage. Although I suspect quite a few might slink away from that offer.   


Then again, those proponents of Earth Hour would argue that this campaign creates awareness among the people and helps popularizing the concept of energy conservation so that people might push it for populist reason. They say, "think of it as petition for Earth". Shit, like I said above, most people I know who were supporting it did this to feel much better for themselves. After this is over, they will start forgetting all about this and continue the fucking habits of cranking up the wattage output.  For examples, they're still leave their PCs on after work, charging their phones all the day long, fingering their iPhones for no reasons, pressing the pedal and rev their engines as loud as possible, etc. 


I also wonder how wonder how much of electricity can be saved within an hour all lights in the house are off? Turning off your lights for one hour isn't going to make up for all the hours you leave them on, if you're really serious about saving the environment, you need to be frugal in all areas in life to minimize your impact, an hour is just enough to make some petty environmental point. Also, I've seen people posting pictures showing them having some fun time under the candle lights. Way to go to save the Earth, dipshits. Candles or kerosene products would leave even more carbon footprints than what you've done if you leave the lights on. I have also seen people driving around just to check out any anti-environmentalists who were being naughty for sabotaging the nature by lighting themselves like there's a wedding ball going on. Wow, by driving around that area you would have burnt a few litres of petrol (RM1.90/L if she was pumping RON95) and produce enough coals for you to have a decent sauna. On behalf of Earth, thanks for giving me Asthma, bitch. Since everyone is doing their part of killing the Earth, might as well for me to join forces too:

My house during Earth Hour. It's Christmas all year long.

So are you thinking I'm an asswipe who is currently killing the Earth by posting this nonsensical article? Tell you what, I can proclaim myself as a energy conservationist even more pious than you. To me, Earth hour should be every hour. I leave lights off when I'm not in the room; I do full loads of laundry, with cold water, and hang dry some of my clothes; I walk or cycle if I can and grab my stuff at local grocery stores; I don't leave my car's engine running while idle, this one drives me crazy, why the fuck people let their motor run while they pop in somewhere after 15 minutes; Also, I UNPLUG ALL MY ELECTRONICS WHEN THEY'RE NOT USED, how many of you all would do this, hmm? This year I'm going to do the same thing I did last year. My footprint is small already. 


Know what? There are two ways that can make Earth Hour a successful campaign:


1. Committing mass suicide all around the globe at local time 8.30 - 9.30 PM! That will be the best use of one hour for Earth ever! I think that once we die out, in a couple hundred years, Earth is going to have a Human hour, you know, to remember us. One hour a year she is gonna laugh and laugh and shake our bones.


2. Have a great sex! It will be the best time for you and your spouse to rekindle the long lost romance or discover a new one!



"Hey honey, I'm trying to go green and we should really think about the environment."


"Yeah, that's a good idea. What do you plan we do?"


"Have sex."


"How does that save the environment?"


"Well it's Earth Day today and for one hour we're supposed to shut all our power and lights off. Since we're going to have nothing to do for an hour in the dark. I suggest we just have crazy sex."


"Oh really? One hour? That's a good time for us to have a talk about our future. We should have a long discussion about where we see ourselves in 5 years."


"Well.... 1 hour isn't going to make a difference... What is one person turning off their power going to do for the environment? Probably not much. Let's forget I even mentioned it."


"But what about us???"


"I dunno but I suddenly feel the urge to buy a Hummer though."

Okay, cynical remarks aside, it's not really bad campaign. I just feel that the whole idea just doesn't hit the mark. It talks about creating awareness but how much of awareness is being created? I think WWF should do more homework on changing the public's outlook by educating the people about the benefits of energy conversation and how easy it can be done. Useful concepts such as recycling, installation of energy-efficient appliances, save fuel and drive energy-efficient automobiles, etc. Non of these ideas were being mentioned, not even in the format of a small little piece of colorful brochures or on TV advertisement! The "message" is so meaningless that it amounts to nothing. I mean, if it was something practical like "Plant a tree hour" or "don't waste water week" or "No diriving evening" something that would actually start a long-term practice or change in people's lifestyle, then it would be something. Also, why WWF isn't bold enough to go further? One hour is too small a step and people would go amnesiac after this. If it were up to me, I'd do an Earth Week, NO ELECTRICITY FOR A WEEK, unless you need it for life support or to run electric fences to keep velociraptors away.

Too bad Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" wasn't shown in Malaysia due to his snide remark over our ex-PM Mahathir Mohamad. It's a great documentary that tell us we have fucked our mother Earth too much and we're paying for the consequences. It's a shame that political sentiments triumph over the need of teaching our people on the importance of preserving the environment. Our policymakers are also too dumb to initiate incentives such as providing funds for electric/hybrid automobile development, propagation of biodiesel usage, etc. Even ironic, they're having a party just to present that stupid project called Economic Transformation Programme, can't they just do it on TV or newspaper in lieu of collective shit pile of carbon footprints in a stadium?? That's a very deafening way to shout "FUCK YOU" in the face of mother nature.


The point of this discussion is not to make a farce out of Earth Hour as it is a step in the right direction, but that's just it. It is a step, and merely that. Turning one's lights off for an hour will do absolutely nothing for the environment if you don't take it further. Earth Hour is not an event to change the environment, it's an event planned to change our outlook. To make us start thinking of all the environmental choices we make each day, good or bad, that can be a simple as turning out the lights. If we start thinking about these decisions more and more and consciously try to make the more environmentally friendly ones, that is what will change our world. This Earth Hour, don't just turn off your lights, turn on your environmental consciousness.