Earth hour, Smurf power…

We had “Earth Hour” last night.

Sadly, this act of intellectual masturbation now qualifies as an “event” in our society: the act of having people turning off a light switch actually makes the news. Funny, every time I turn out the light after going to the toilet, I’ve never had it featured in the newspapers. I was so disappointed, I decided to repeat the process and see what happened. Nope. Nada. Not once did I get on the news. Go figure.

Yes, I know, some of you out there will claim that it’s important; that it serves to draw people’s attention to the issue of being more responsible about our energy consumption. Make them aware and, hopefully, through education, turn them into better environmental citizens.

Earth Hour is important, right? Or is it?

Anyone who has half a clue would surely realise that “Earth Hour” is purely symbolic. Yes, we’ll turn off a light or two. Will we turn off our refrigerators, our dishwashers, our computers, or anything else we deem inconvenient, to demonstrate our solidarity during “Earth Hour” ? You bet your arse we won’t. And even if we did, it wouldn’t make any difference anyway.

When you look at the total energy consumption of the world today, and then compare it to what you would save if you switched off some lights for an hour, the saving wouldn’t even register as a blip on the radar. It’s really not worth bothering with, unless of course you want to have an “event” where you can proclaim your enviro-worthiness by rushing around as the countdown hits zero, eagerly flipping light switches in the delusion that you’re actually accomplishing something.

Now I’m not saying that running the planet better isn’t a high-priority issue: of course it is. What I am saying is that rather than indulge in buzz-phrases to suit the attention span of a baby guppy, how about we focus instead on long-term solutions? I don’t buy the argument that “Earth Hour” necessarily raises awareness. Not for the long term. It might for a brief time, but then the awareness sinks back into the mud, because it’s been promoted like Father’s Day or Mother’s Day or any of those other “shopping” days.

Here’s a point to ponder:

How often due you see campaigns by the energy authorities advising you to only use power boards with individually-switched outlets, so that when you don’t need to have that plug-pack for your laptop, mobile phone, printer, or whatever, powered up all the time, you can actually switch it off? In the old days, household appliances were restricted to things like the washing machine, the refrigerator, the TV set, and so on. They all needed mains power to work, and so the power lead went straight into the cabinet. Today, we have much more in the way of technology around the home. We have mobile phones, printers, cable TV boxes, and much, much more. True, they all require voltages of far less than mains voltage to operate on, and so they use the ubiquitous plug-pack. HOWEVER… you will see, with almost no exceptions, that these plug-packs have no power switch (and I mean a real power switch, where it physically disconnects the electricity feed from the power point itself) on them.

You plug them in and away they go, consuming power, even when the devices they’re meant to connect to (like your mobile phone) are not attached in any way. You may well point out that you can switch off the mains power from the power point itself, but there are so many situations where there are numerous plug-packs sitting in power boards, the boards have no power switches, and people can’t be bothered with the hassle of physically inserting/removing the plug-packs several times per day, so it’s easier to just let them sit.

What’s the bet that the vast majority of the people that were running around last night flicking light switches, patting themselves on the back for being so conscientious about the environment, have homes loaded to the rafters with devices relying on these little plug-packs? Don’t get me wrong: I’m not harping on about the humble plug-pack in an attempt to blame all the evils of society upon it; I’m simply using it as an example of how there are more things deserving of your attention than “Earth Hour” and its ridiculous eco-evangelism.

What about all the wastage from public utilities? You could have a field day with that.

Ah stuff it. It’s all too hard. Let’s not worry about real issues, let’s just have “Earth Hour” instead and pretend we actually did something meaningful, and then we can get back to business as usual tomorrow.

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