Left as an Exercise

Earth Hour’s tonight at 8:30 (everyone’s local time). This will be the third year I’ve participated — its third year overall, in fact. There’s been an awful lot of press this time, compared to last year, from several perspectives. It seems to me that most folk just don’t get it.

Earth Hour isn’t about cutting greenhouse gas emissions on its own. Most of what you switch off is electrical, and unless you live off-grid with your own generators, you get that electricity from what the power companies supply to the grid. Electricity can’t be stored as easily as we’d like, so generators keep running above baseload all the time — switching off all your unused lights and appliances just fluctuates how much is consumed, which has next to no bearing on the GHG emissions at the generator. So when Australia’s 2007 record is stated as “the equivalent of 48,000 cars being taken off the road for a year”, know that the calculation went through several different conversion factors (from kWh to approximate GHG emissions from power plants (probably using Australia’s power generation mix, but don’t quote me on that) to GHG emissions per car per annum) and doesn’t actually reflect a GHG reduction on its own.

Earth Hour isn’t about saving the planet through energy conservation. The energy saved is substantial when it adds up, but ultimately residential areas aren’t the strongest consumers of electricity (last I checked, that was industry). Personal action is only going to go so far in dealing with climate and energy crises, and fundamentally that’s what Earth Hour involves. (I’m reminded of Barack Obama’s first on-record F-bomb, though. It’s nice to know the adults understand.)

Speaking of collectives, I am heartened somewhat by the businesses and public icons that are participating. It’s all fine and dandy if you take a shot of Toronto and see the suburbs dark, but if you capture the entire skyline and only the safety lights are on, it tends to resonate. (Those certainly were my favorite images from the 2008 Earth Hour; this year, I’m hoping for orbital shots.) At the same time, I’m equally depressed by the participation of groups that have no intention whatsoever of aiming towards sustainability, like Parliament. This means that some folk see it as a cheap symbol — and not the sort that it actually is — sort of like any of the “wars” Americans have declared on social issues (War On Drugs, etc). This, too, is Missing The Point.

At the core, Earth Hour is a symbol — a highly visible way to show that you demand action now on climate and energy. It also serves as a reminder of how much you actually use — the act of setting up for Earth Hour is often enough of a reminder of how wasteful our current homes truly are, at least as far as electricity is concerned. People who think it’s about personal action Miss The Point. People who think it’s a symbol of vague “save the planet” thoughts also Miss The Point.

It’s more like activism, or a public vote — only instead of holding up a hand-made sign, you hold up the darkness. One can only hope that once people see this for what it is, they can realize that it isn’t political suicide to adopt high-efficiency, low-carbon standards.

…Five minutes to my local go time. I’m off to start powering down.

Further reading: Phil Plait, George Marshall, Alok Jha and Things Break.