Earth Hour 2010: A warm and fuzzy failure

Earth Hour 2010 – that’s EH10, if you must – was last night. Earth Hour started in Sydney in 2007. The idea’s to turn off all lights for an hour from 8:30 p.m. I didn’t turn mine off: First, on a practical level, my electricity’s solar, so turning off lights hardly lowers CO2 emissions. Second, on a symbolic level, my house can’t be seen from any public road or any neighbour’s house, so no-one but me (and Sergey and Larry via Google Earth) would know if I turned off my lights or not. And third, on an ideological level, my opinion hasn’t changed since I wrote this a year ago. Meanwhile the 15th UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, i.e. (forgive me) COP15, generated massive media hype but no real progress towards changing this graph. So apart from its feel-good effect – which though warm and fuzzy is of no practical import apart from swelling the coffers of its organiser WWF – on a bottom-line basis EH09 failed abjectly. EH10 will too. For though actions (and inactions) of individuals can do much to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and thus global warming and climate change, the necessary massive changes can only occur by the unified policies of all governments world-wide. But politicians need to be popular – because those in democracies want to be re-elected, and those in totalitarian regimes want not to be overthrown. So despite EH10 the CO2 graph will continue to rise – likely more steeply. Ho hum.

farmdoc's blog post number 411

I’m half-way through Gwynne Dyer’s 2008 book Climate Wars. It’s about the geopolitical consequences of climate change. And it’s very scary. Though not, I add, without hope. One important point Dyer makes is that though it’s fine for individuals and families to use compact fluorescent lights and drive hybrid cars, the changes needed to stop global warming and thus climate change reaching a critical and probably irreversible level, are so major they can only be achieved by governments. I agree. With atmospheric CO2 now 382 parts per million [ppm] and the consensus critical level 450 ppm, there’s no time to waste. I’ve previously wondered about the usefulness of Earth Hour and Earth Day. The same goes for World Environment Day [WED] – which is today. Wikipedia says WED was established by the UN General Assembly in 1972, and each year a different city hosts it (2009: Mexico City) and it has a different theme (2009: Your Planet Needs You - UNite to Combat Climate Change). Cute. It’s aim is ‘to stimulate awareness of the environment and enhance political attention and public action’. WED’s lovely in theory, and I can’t argue with the process. But I’m too old to reinvent the wheel, so I can but say again: ‘Rousing stuff, but useless unless every single world leader assigns global warming and climate change the highest policy priority. If they haven’t done so by now, they never will’.

farmdoc's blog post number 367

Last 28 March was Earth Hour. Yawn. Today’s Earth Day. Yawn x 24. Though 2009 is its 39th annual iteration, I know next to nothing about Earth Day. The website says today’s the beginning of The Green Generation Campaign^TM which will also be the focus of the 40th Earth Day, in 2010. With negotiations for a new global climate agreement coming up next December, Earth Day 2009 is a day of action and civic participation, to defend The Green Generation^TM’s three core principles: first, carbon-free future based on renewable energy that will end our common dependency on fossil fuels, including coal; second, an individual’s commitment to responsible, sustainable consumption; and third, creation of a new green economy that lifts people out of poverty by creating millions of quality green jobs and transforms the global education system into a green one. Verily motherhood and apple pie principles. Judging by the 13 directors of the Earth Day Network, it’s an entirely US outfit. But, as a trickle, it’s percolated Down Under, because keying ‘Australia’ into the events search box returns a few tiny events – none in major cities. Me? I think that at this precarious point on the global warming/climate change apocalyptic pathway, there are 365 Earth Days per year. That is, environmental consciousness raising’s gratuitous. But in the spirit of good global citizenship, I do wish you Happy Earth Day.

farmdoc's blog post number 342

What’s that old chestnut they trot out in Philosophy 101? If a tree falls in a forest and there’s no-one there, does it make a noise when it falls? I’ve never enrolled in Philosophy 101 so I can’t tell you the answer. Neither do I know if a message is a message if it’s not received. Tonight the hour starting 8:30 p.m. is Earth Hour 2009. Actually it’s WWF Earth Hour 2009 – because apparently the WWF’s acquired the naming rights. WWF-titled or not, turning off lights during Earth Hour 2009 is meant to ‘send a strong message on climate change to world leaders’. Earth Hour 2009 has 62 countries signed up to flick off the switch. The data aren’t available, but I’ll bet that since Earth Hour began in 2007, the air’s carbon concentration has not only not fallen, but the rate of increase hasn’t even slowed. And almost certainly it’s steepened. So if Earth Hour’s aim is to ‘send a strong message…to world leaders’, then either they’ve not received it (unlikely) or they’re ignoring it (likely). Earth Hour 2009 aims for a billion people in a thousand cities worldwide to switch off lights as part of the largest ever call to climate change action. Rousing stuff, but useless unless every single world leader assigns global warming and climate change the highest policy priority. If they haven’t done so by now, they never will. Which is why I’m not flicking off my light switches tonight.