Earth Hour

[CountingDown]

It's a gesture but far from empty. Last year our local Fair Trade group organised an Earth Hour concert at which the lights were dimmed, acoustic music played and people talked to others who had not previously met. Out of that, and other similar gestures, emerged our Transition Town initiative. A year later we are in discussion with the local authority and getting commitments on policy shifts which are very far from empty gestures.

This Saturday we'll be having another Earth Hour concert. Who knows what will emerge but it certainly won't be an empty gesture.

That's a good positive story Biff, I'm a bit hostile to Earth Hour this year after I heard that the Trafford Centre is going to "dim the lights in the dome" for earth hour. So . . . they get a nice bit of PR while managing to completely back away from any real commitment:

- they're not actually turning the lights off
- they're only doing it in one section of the centre, that is there for purely decorative purposes

I guess that's what happens when you run a temple to BAU.

[biffvernon]

the Trafford Centre is going to "dim the lights in the dome" for earth hour.

But that's great - it will get people talking, discussing, thinking, it's exactly what is needed - and if it makes people say 'that is just a gesture and more should be done' - great.

Away with cynisism

[DominicJ]

I'm fairly sure theres laws against turning the lights off.

[emordnilap]

for the likes of people who are actually bothered it won't make any difference as their houses are already very energy efficient and the inhabitants aware of such issues.

Exactly. I'm aware of the issues and of the 'Earth Hour' so what will turning off two or three low-energy bulbs achieve?

Question. We use around 4 kWh electricity daily. Is that high/medium/low or what for a two-person house?

[Adam1]

George Marshall makes a good point here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/c ... -emissions

In my 25 years of environmental campaigning I have seen lots of inspired protests and lots of daft or pointless ones. But the WWF Earth Hour campaign has to be one of the most misguided and counterproductive actions I have ever seen.

On the face of it, this seems like a rather neat idea, which ticks every box for a mass action. Turning your lights off for an hour this Saturday from 8.30pm is a small, simple act that is easy to publicise.

It is highly visible. It's something anyone can do and can involve both individuals and large businesses. WWF expects hundreds of millions of people around the world to take part. And, best of all, the action is not just a symbol but it makes a positive and even measurable contribution to the core issue – reducing emissions.

Sounds great. However, let's deal with one assumption first: this will not actually reduce any emissions. Power companies always keep spare capacity and will keep their turbines spinning through this unpredictable fall in demand in preparation for when people turn their lights back on again.

Given that this action is entirely symbolic it deserves some more searching questions: who is this speaking to? What is it saying to them? And how does it speak to their existing attitudes and prejudices ?

If you are talking to dedicated green liberals this protest works fine. They already believe in climate change and soft symbolic forms of mass action. They already buy into the concept if reducing energy consumption and switching things off – even if, in practice, they aren't very good at it.

But right now greens are the last people we need to be talking to. The absolute priority is engaging the large majority of the population who are concerned about climate change, but feel deeply ambivalent about the motivations of environmentalists and government.

Repeatedly in focus groups, people adopt a defensive stance against people who – they feel – are using the issue to take away material benefits. Asking people to sit in the dark plays very well to a widely held prejudice that "the greens" want us all to go back to living in caves.

And if we examine the deeper symbolism, things become far worse. George Lakoff, professor of cognitive linguistics at the University of California, argues that while we claim to listen to surface argument, it is really the deeper metaphors embodied in our language that create our attitudes.

Light has a vast range of positive and aspirational associations: civilisation, truth, health, intelligence, safety, hope, life and salvation. Those opposing action on climate change understand this well and frequently use images of electric light at night in their publicity as a metaphor for excitement, civilisation, and progress.

So it is hard to think of any image more destructive to our cause than turning off lights. The metaphors of darkness are overwhelmingly negative: danger, decay, and death. We see the dark ages as a time of brutality. Poets such as Dylan Thomas call on us to "rage against the dying of the light". Sir Edward Grey on the eve of the first world war said "the lamps are going out all over Europe". Really the cultural resonance could hardly be worse.

The overwhelming need at the moment is to inspire ordinary people with a vision of a better world, to make them feel that action on climate change is utterly desirable and positive.

We have so many positive metaphors on our side – emerging from the danger and filth of buried fossil fuels into the sunlight of solar power; the core values of locality and community; the health that comes from good diet and exercise; and, as a larger narrative, humanity's long journey towards a cleaner, smarter and more efficient future.

Oh dear. Why, after so many years, are we still getting it so wrong?

• George Marshall is founder of the Climate Outreach Information Network and the author of Carbon Detox and the blog climatedenial.org

[JohnB]

George Marshall makes a good point here:

I'd go along with that. If I'm in my van on Saturday night, whether on or off grid, I'll be using 4 LED lights, probably my stereo at 5 watts, and laptop at 25 watts. So my energy consumption apart from heating will be less than one 40 watt light bulb. I wonder how many people will think to turn their central heating off for an hour, and if they do, how much energy it will take to bring the house back up to temperature afterwards.

[Jakell]

I will be working on hospital ward at that time, and will try to resist the temptation to turn off any equipment.

[biffvernon]

Have we learnt nothing from the Life of Brian? For somebody in one corner of the vast Green Movement to moan about the ideas of another Green is just STUPID.

I don't buy into the idea that it's preaching to the converted. Here's an example: a woman I know went with a group of us to see The Age of Stupid. She's always thought of herself as a green and is even a member of the Green Party. Since she saw the film she has decided to not take a foreign holiday that she and her husband were planning this year. She has turned a deeper shade of green.

Last year, as I said, our local Earth Hour event was the start of lots of good things. Tomorrow evening, we'll be having a little candlelit concert. We will be raising awareness and strengthening the social relationships that will be needed in the uncertain times that lie ahead.

Don't knock it, come and join in.

[Keela]

Agreed Biff.

Schools seem to have promoted it a bit too. My 12 year old daughter has reminded me several times: she completely understands that Sat night is a gesture and that ongoing changes are worth effort too. Her friends are all reminding their parents - it makes everybody think just a little.

We are going to flick the main switch - no leccy for an hour.

[Janco2]

Same here. Lights out etc. for an hour.

[adam2]

for the likes of people who are actually bothered it won't make any difference as their houses are already very energy efficient and the inhabitants aware of such issues.

Exactly. I'm aware of the issues and of the 'Earth Hour' so what will turning off two or three low-energy bulbs achieve?

Question. We use around 4 kWh electricity daily. Is that high/medium/low or what for a two-person house?

I think that 4KWH a day is below average, presuming that gas, coal or wood is also used for heating. If electricity is your only fuel then it is very low.
I use about 2 KWH a day, if averaged over a year, all renewably produced. This is mainly for A/C in the summer, as much as 6KWH a day, winter production is much less.

[Keela]

I was driving back home just around 8.30pm. Quite a few houses blacked out! We've just powered back up as the girls enjoyed the candle light for a bit.

[biffvernon]

Had a great acoustic hour before the electrically powered music started up. Candlelit all night.

Film of big things going dark: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7969515.stm

[2 As and a B]

Well, as someone who is climate change aware and relatively wide-read, I can honestly say I've never heard of George Marshall or his Climate Outreach Information Network, whose aims are...

We aim to create a powerful and vocal community of people working together to move technology, government and business forward to reduce emissions and make real and lasting changes to the way we live’

· The Climate Outreach Information Network (COIN) is a charitable trust formed in 2004 to directly engage the public about climate change.

· Our aim is to facilitate the process by which people: overcome denial about climate change; act collectively to cut greenhouse gas emissions; and offer democratic legitimacy to elected leaders to negotiate successfully for strong regulation at a national and international level.

· COIN is committed to trailing new methods of peer-peer communication and action and reporting on what we learn. We hope, in this way, to assist the wider climate change movement to adopt effective strategies derived from evidence-based research.

'Nuff said I think.

When the nurse arrived yesterday evening at 8pm I said I'd be going out and back some time after 9.45. She said "Oh, are you going out for a meal?" When I said no, I was going to take part in a candlelit vigil, she said "Oh, is that for Earth Hour?" She is from Zambia.

The BBC featured Earth Hour on their TV news.

'Nuff said.

I think sitting at home in the dark alone for an hour is a pretty stupid thing to do! A pointless exercise in hairshirting self-denial. It is a missed opportunity.

Our TT group is just getting started but we were able to use Earth Hour to get a press release, including all our contact and meetings details, in the local paper - our first mention in the local paper. We beat the District Council to the publication deadline - their press release went out on 25 March and was unreported in the paper (that may however have been tactical on their part) but they did, on their homepage, urge residents to switch off lights.

Our candlelit vigil was attended by only five members, plus one partner, and we handed out flyers to anyone who said they were interested in green issues. Next year we might have 50 people at the vigil. We might even have an event such as the one Biff described and one of our members had suggested for this year (but we were hopelessly unprepared to be able to pull off).

Next year our press release might be along the lines: "Don't sit at home like a lemon with the lights off! Come and join us!"

[emordnilap]

for the likes of people who are actually bothered it won't make any difference as their houses are already very energy efficient and the inhabitants aware of such issues.

Exactly. I'm aware of the issues and of the 'Earth Hour' so what will turning off two or three low-energy bulbs achieve?

Question. We use around 4 kWh electricity daily. Is that high/medium/low or what for a two-person house?

I think that 4KWH a day is below average, presuming that gas, coal or wood is also used for heating. If electricity is your only fuel then it is very low.

Good to know. We use wood for heating (much of it from inside half a kilometre of the house) and get some hot water from the solar panel and the rest from the back boiler.

One good thing did come out of the 'Earth Hour' experiment for us: it made us think seriously about how to manage without lights/electricity and enlightened us (ahem) to a few of the real problems; ie, don't go rummaging in the knife drawer, for instance.

A couple of top-quality headsets (and a good number of rechargeables for them) are a must. With those, life could carry on semi-normally.