Earth Hour 2012, What’s the Point?
More countries participated in Earth Hour 2012 than ever before. (Last year it was 137, this year, 150). Here are some great before-and-after pictures from around the world here and some more here
The nay-sayers believe Earth Hour is trying to encourage us back to the time before electricity – nothing could be further from the truth. Earth Hour 2012 highlights the problems we are causing by our energy consumption. Its purpose is NOT to say we should be living without electricity – that would be simply impossible. Not to mention most uncomfortable.
Instead, the purpose of Earth Hour2012 is to bring awareness of global problems.
But, will it work?
The answer may surprise you.
Did it Make a Difference?
If you switched your lights off for Earth Hour 2012, did it make a difference?
Directly, no. Not even a tiny bit.
Our personal consumption reduction was so small as to be meaningless in the overall scheme of things.
But, the event got global news coverage, and there were some really great challenges made – and many have already been met (see the Earth Hour 2012 site). It is the world’s largest mass event in support of the planet.
Now, I’m going to go into some statistics here – and I’d really like you to read to the end, because you might get a little upset initially, but bear with me, please.
In a 2008 paper, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) compared the energy consumption of various North American lifestyles. As you can imagine, a U.S. Senator and a multi-millionaire used considerably more energy than a homeless person and a monk. That makes sense.
But the paper went further. It added each individual’s energy consumption to the energy embodied in our shared systems (roads, schools, the military, etc.). Then, even a homeless North American consumes more than double the average global energy use.
Now, if you’re American, don’t get defensive. And if you’re not, don’t get smug.
There’s more to it.
Europeans, for example, don’t use less energy than Americans because Europeans are better people. Not at all. Like most people world-wide, some people will conserve, some won’t.
But perhaps shared systems in the rest of the world are perhaps better at incentivizing energy conservation and offering more choices. One of the key issues, according to the MIT paper, is the amount of government subsidies each American receives. (I can think of oil subsidies and food subsidies, I’m sure there are more).
Isn’t this interesting? It puts a whole new slant on our individual consumption.
Next, I’ll explain exactly what that means for you and me, no matter where or how you live. And why it has an effect on Earth Hour 2012. Read on….
Oh, too bad I didn’t know about this event. I would’ve liked to have participated.
[…] is Part 2 of a 2-part blog. In Part 1 of this Earth Hour 2012 review, I looked at the global coverage and awareness, and highlighted that Earth Hour 2012 was the […]
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Hi Green Goddess,
I wasn’t aware of the event of Earth Hour. However, yes, really, we typically can use LESS power and electricity than what we are used to with its ready availability.
Happy Dating and Relationships,
April Braswell
Wasn’t offended at all. In fact, I’ve read that with all the subsidizing the U.S. government does, Americans would be shocked if they had to pay the real cost for items such as gasoline. We cringe at our four dollar a gallon prices today when the rest of the world has been paying much higher costs for a long time.
Michael