Earth Hour
I'm disappointed. I've been inundated for the past few days with reminders that this coming Saturday, people around the globe are celebrating Earth hour by turning your lights off for a single hour on a particular day of the year. To that I say "Where's your commitment? Put your money where your mouth is! Turn off your lights, your appliances - unplug everything and just give it all a rest!" But you, faithful readers, you know this.
The reason that I'm disappointed is this: we've discovered, in our Day Without Electricity experiments, that there are some minor adjustments to make in shutting down for one day a week. That there are tiny things to consider when shutting down all electricity to our house for 24 hours. But what's involved in just turning off the lights for an hour? It's not the "bold statement" that the marketers are trying to make you believe. It entails no re-thinking of choices, it calls for no sacrifice from anyone.
I challenge anyone who's jumping on the Earth hour bandwagon to challenge themselves to REALLY change things. It's not enough for companies like Coca-Cola to turn off their lights for an hour - they're turning the whole thing into a marketing event, handing out commemorative mass-produced flashlights to visitors to their plants so that we all know that they shut their lights off for an hour. They're spending more money and wasting more resources making sure that we know about their participation than they're saving by turning off the lights for an hour!
That's the problem with events like this. The fact that for any event you care to name, there's a guy out there trying to figure out how he can capitalize on it by getting you not just to buy into it, but to BUY it.
Don't buy it, guys. While you're sitting there in the dark, perhaps with other folks sitting in the dark, start talking. Talk about the fact that you're not sitting alone in your house, in your town, in your state - you're sitting on a planet with billions of other people who are all dependent on each other. The choices you make EVERY DAY impact the choices that other people in other parts of the world have. More for you, less for them. Is that the person you are? Is that the person you want to be?
Don't do it because some celebrity told you to. Don't do it because everyone else is doing it. For crying out loud, don't do it because someone's going to give you a flashlight or commemorative t-shirt. Do it because you know that it's the right thing to do. Then - keep on doing it!
The reason that I'm disappointed is this: we've discovered, in our Day Without Electricity experiments, that there are some minor adjustments to make in shutting down for one day a week. That there are tiny things to consider when shutting down all electricity to our house for 24 hours. But what's involved in just turning off the lights for an hour? It's not the "bold statement" that the marketers are trying to make you believe. It entails no re-thinking of choices, it calls for no sacrifice from anyone.
I challenge anyone who's jumping on the Earth hour bandwagon to challenge themselves to REALLY change things. It's not enough for companies like Coca-Cola to turn off their lights for an hour - they're turning the whole thing into a marketing event, handing out commemorative mass-produced flashlights to visitors to their plants so that we all know that they shut their lights off for an hour. They're spending more money and wasting more resources making sure that we know about their participation than they're saving by turning off the lights for an hour!
That's the problem with events like this. The fact that for any event you care to name, there's a guy out there trying to figure out how he can capitalize on it by getting you not just to buy into it, but to BUY it.
Don't buy it, guys. While you're sitting there in the dark, perhaps with other folks sitting in the dark, start talking. Talk about the fact that you're not sitting alone in your house, in your town, in your state - you're sitting on a planet with billions of other people who are all dependent on each other. The choices you make EVERY DAY impact the choices that other people in other parts of the world have. More for you, less for them. Is that the person you are? Is that the person you want to be?
Don't do it because some celebrity told you to. Don't do it because everyone else is doing it. For crying out loud, don't do it because someone's going to give you a flashlight or commemorative t-shirt. Do it because you know that it's the right thing to do. Then - keep on doing it!
Labels: dwe
posted by Aoibheall | 3:36 PM
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