International 'Earth Hour' to plunge millions into darkness

[ewv 0]

Shutting down industrial civilization in the name of "efficiency". At least this particular campaign does not yet dare to explicitly proclaim its desire for "let there be dark" -- it's still (barely) hidden behind the use of "efficiency" as a stolen concept used as a euphemism for doing without.

'Earth Hour' to plunge millions into darkness

by Madeleine Coorey

Fri Mar 28, 1:57 AM ET

SYDNEY (AFP) - Twenty-six major cities around the world are expected to turn off the lights on major landmarks, plunging millions of people into darkness to raise awareness about global warming, organisers said.

'Earth Hour' founder Andy Ridley said 371 cities, towns or local governments from Australia to Canada and even Fiji had signed up for the 60-minute shutdown at 0900 GMT on March 29.

"There are definitely 26 (cities) that we think, if it all goes to plan, we are going to see a major event of lights going off," he told AFP ...

"Switching the lights off for an hour is not going to make a dent in global emissions," organiser Charles Stevens, of the environmental group WWF, told AFP.

"But what it does do is it is a great catalyst for much bigger changes. It engages people in the processes of becoming more energy efficient."

Stevens said the initiative encouraged businesses to be more careful with their electricity use while at the same time sending "a fairly powerful message to governments that people are demanding action."

Full article

[ewv 0]

And all over the world politically correct public officials parrot the official line in the name of "creative ideas":

Lights out, Concord

By Sean McGee/Correspondent

Thu Mar 13, 2008, 01:13 PM EDT

Concord -

After a brief presentation by the chairman of Concord’s Comprehensive Sustainable Energy Committee, Brian Crounse Monday night, the Board of Selectmen signed a “Lights Out America” proclamation that will take effect on the evening of March 29 from 8 to 9 p.m. ...

The Concord Municipal Exchange will donate 300 compact fluorescent light bulbs as a part of the event, and residents will be able to obtain them before it takes place if they choose.

According to the proclamation, “The Town of Concord will participate in this event by turning off all non-essential lighting in municipally owned buildings” but street lights will remain lit for public safety.

“I think it’s great we’re doing this,” said Selectman Virginia McIntyre.

“It’s amazing to see the level of energy and creative ideas [of the Comprehensive Sustainable Energy Committee], they engage and are trying to make a change,” agreed Selectman Greg Howes.

Full article

[JRoberts 0]

Rush talked about this on his show today, urging everybody to turn every single light they owned on in "celebration".

[ewv 0]

Rush talked about this on his show today, urging everybody to turn every single light they owned on in "celebration".

The last time they tried this in Concord electricity consumption went up as people ignored or protested the agenda. This time the viros seem to be avoiding the potential embarrassment of no voluntary public support by advanced lobbying of public officials to turn off the lights in government facilities. Those who don't go along are simply ignored in the PR.

[GUY A 0]

All my lights, save one, including my oven light will be on.

Refrigerator light? I think not.

[Alon Tsin 0]

Frankly, it reminds me of Atlas Shrugged, where the final symbol of the collapse of civilization was the lights of New York going out.

The analogy is frightening...

[RayK 0]

The only thing I find "frightening" is the amount of people involved in this idiotic "creative idea."

[piz 0]

Here is the message I sent to the Earth Hour organization, via the "Contact Us" link on their web site:

To participate in Earth Hour 2008, I will turning on every last electrical device in my home, as well as raising my thermostat to the highest tolerable level, opening my windows to allow the setting to be even higher by letting the heat to escape to the outside. I will begin 30 minutes before Earth Hour starts, and finish 30 minutes after Earth Hour ends. The whole time that's going on, I'll be out driving my car. Alone.

Environmentalism is based on fantasy, like any other religion, and your organization, as well as *you* (the individual reading this message *at this moment*), are the very soul of evil. You seek to destroy me, my children, and the rest of humanity. You must be stopped.

Do not add me to any of your mailing or other form of contact lists.

[Paul's Here 0]

All my lights, save one, including my oven light will be on.

Refrigerator light? I think not.

You can tape the switch down to keep the light on and the door closed.

[Thales 0]

All my lights, save one, including my oven light will be on.

Refrigerator light? I think not.

You can tape the switch down to keep the light on and the door closed.

It heartens me more than I can relate to you that Google has gone out of their way to support the sweet cause of environmentalism. Can you say www.dogpile.com? I knew you could.

[PhilO 0]

It heartens me more than I can relate to you that Google has gone out of their way to support the sweet cause of environmentalism. Can you say www.dogpile.com? I knew you could.

I switched my homepage, for now, to www.live.com after I saw Google's blackened eco-page today. Dogpile may be a good idea overall but it still uses Google as one of its engines.

[Paul's Here 0]

I was just about to post about Google and was already beaten to it.

[GUY A 0]

All my lights, save one, including my oven light will be on.

Refrigerator light? I think not.

You can tape the switch down to keep the light on and the door closed.

I can tape the switch down to keep the light off with the door open.

[Thales 0]

All my lights, save one, including my oven light will be on.

Refrigerator light? I think not.

You can tape the switch down to keep the light on and the door closed.

I can tape the switch down to keep the light off with the door open.

So true. I'm disappointed I didn't catch that. You could keep your refrigerator door open for an hour or so.

It heartens me more than I can relate to you that Google has gone out of their way to support the sweet cause of environmentalism. Can you say www.dogpile.com? I knew you could.

I switched my homepage, for now, to www.live.com after I saw Google's blackened eco-page today.

What an obnoxious sight Google was this morning. Thanks for the heads up, Phil. I'll look at that one as well.

Dogpile may be a good idea overall but it still uses Google as one of its engines.

It does, it just lessens the blow.

[R.M.Alger 0]

Shutting down industrial civilization in the name of "efficiency". At least this particular campaign does not yet dare to explicitly proclaim its desire for "let there be dark" -- it's still (barely) hidden behind the use of "efficiency" as a stolen concept used as a euphemism for doing without.

I do thank the greens for one thing, for so perfectly displaying what they are fighting for; they literally want to ‘turn of the lights of the world’. Also, “turning of the lights” is a strong object of metaphor.

Here is a scene from Northern Exposure that deals with light.

[ewv 0]

Shutting down industrial civilization in the name of "efficiency". At least this particular campaign does not yet dare to explicitly proclaim its desire for "let there be dark" -- it's still (barely) hidden behind the use of "efficiency" as a stolen concept used as a euphemism for doing without.

I do thank the greens for one thing, for so perfectly displaying what they are fighting for; they literally want to ‘turn off the lights of the world’. Also, “turning off the lights” is a strong object of metaphor.

They may be "displaying" it, but they are trying to have it both ways because they know it is too soon to openly advocate what they feel -- people wouldn't swallow it in pure form, not yet. That is why there is still a lot of equivocation from Darkness supporters trying to cajole people into going along in the name of "efficiency". But efficiency as a value presupposes the value of production and consumption, both of which the viros oppose. You see the phony appeal to "efficiency" throughout the PR, including at Google (which promotes the Darkness religion while keeping their own servers running, openly admitting that a dark monitor screen makes no difference to power consumption). With energy prices going through the roof due to viro obstruction of power production, people are already concerned about real efficiency; the viros are trying to redirect that into a package deal of "efficiency" as "non-use", first through religious self-deprivation and then by government rationing once the premises have become entrenched.

There have been other discussions on the Forum of the viro desire for Darkness and turning off the lights, including one I posted on a National Park Service article called "Let There Be Dark", but I don't know where it is.

[Betsy Speicher 0]

It heartens me more than I can relate to you that Google has gone out of their way to support the sweet cause of environmentalism. Can you say www.dogpile.com? I knew you could.

I switched my homepage, for now, to www.live.com after I saw Google's blackened eco-page today. Dogpile may be a good idea overall but it still uses Google as one of its engines.

You can use GoodSearch and specify the Ayn Rand Insitute as the beneficiary. That way they will get a cent or more every time you search. So far, GoodSearch has earned ARI $372.47.

[Dave K 0]

Here is the message I sent to the Earth Hour organization, via the "Contact Us" link on their web site:

To participate in Earth Hour 2008, I will turning on every last electrical device in my home, as well as raising my thermostat to the highest tolerable level, opening my windows to allow the setting to be even higher by letting the heat to escape to the outside. I will begin 30 minutes before Earth Hour starts, and finish 30 minutes after Earth Hour ends. The whole time that's going on, I'll be out driving my car. Alone.

Environmentalism is based on fantasy, like any other religion, and your organization, as well as *you* (the individual reading this message *at this moment*), are the very soul of evil. You seek to destroy me, my children, and the rest of humanity. You must be stopped.

Do not add me to any of your mailing or other form of contact lists.

If you have an electric self-cleaning oven, tonight might be a good time to do that too.

[Jay P 0]

Showing my pride in Western Civilization, I spent that hour today with all of my lights on, the heaters (electric!) running to get the house nice and toasty, cooking a meal in the oven (electric too), running the dishwasher, listening to nice assertive loud music, and doing whatever else needed to be done that uses energy.

It was a fine time to reflect on all of the wonderful things one can do because we have electric energy that is inexpensive, easily available, and so easily controlled. Our ancestors would have marveled at this - and would not have been able to imagine a world in which people like today's ecologists actually advocate getting rid of all these conveniences of civilization.

It was a nice mini-celebration, and if anybody around here was somehow measuring the electricity consumption for that hour, I'm glad that my actions will play a part in raising it, in solidarity with those people everywhere who value civilization and the products of man's mind.

As for this "carbon footprint" nonsense though, I fear that my actions won't count, since the last I heard, 82% of my electricity is generated by running water through turbines and 9% comes from splitting atoms. Though I know for a fact that the ecofreaks don't like those machines either.

Electric light: a symbol of Man's improving his environment through the conquest of nature.

Fun? You bet! We should do it again next year....

[KPO'M 0]

While I recognize that "Earth Hour" was just a gimmick, I don't quite understand the concept of turning on lights or wasting energy deliberately to protest. It seems pretty rational to reduce truly unnecessary energy use, if only to save costs.

Where I disagree with "environmentalists" is in who decides what is unnecessary or necessary. If all these buildings don't need to be lit, then why turn them off for just an hour (I noticed around here, all the lights were back on by 9:00PM)? It seems to me that the building owners have decided it's necessary to keep lights on, and they should have that choice. As for me, I switched to CFLs a few months ago after doing the math and figuring out how long it would take before I saved more (in PV terms) than the cost. OTOH, I drive more often than I take the train because I enjoy the benefits more than I want to avoid the costs.

[Betsy Speicher 0]

While I recognize that "Earth Hour" was just a gimmick, I don't quite understand the concept of turning on lights or wasting energy deliberately to protest.

Like "Earth Hour," it's symbolic.

[Paul's Here 0]

------------

There have been other discussions on the Forum of the viro desire for Darkness and turning off the lights, including one I posted on a National Park Service article called "Let There Be Dark", but I don't know where it is.

Here you go, Erich.

http://forums.4aynrandfans.com/index.php?s...ost&p=55885

[Tito 0]

Lit streets are one of the best things to happen. This alone did so much damage to the crime rates, it allowed many more people to walk safely at all hours, it opened the prospects of a 24 hour business.

How typical of these man-haters to want to reverse it.

[Capitalism Forever 0]

Duh, it looks like I missed all the fun! I'm pretty sure London was part of this, they just didn't publicize it very well. I never knew this was going to be yesterday until I saw this thread. I don't have very many electrical appliances in my apartment here, but at least I could have turned on all the lights and left my laptop running for the night. It's all about "doing your bit," as they say...

[Jack Wakeland 0]

Shutting down industrial civilization in the name of "efficiency". At least this particular campaign does not yet dare to explicitly proclaim its desire for "let there be dark" -- it's still (barely) hidden behind the use of "efficiency" as a stolen concept used as a euphemism for doing without.

'Earth Hour' to plunge millions into darkness

by Madeleine Coorey

Fri Mar 28, 1:57 AM ET

Full article

The "Earth Hour" protest against electric lights was a BIG FLOP this year.

In its country of origin, Autralia, participation rates were too low to be measured or observed (see blog by Tim Blair). When the appointed hour came, load dispatchers throughout Australia saw nothing...no decrease in power consuption anywhere in the country.

Will the Sydney Morning Herald -- the newspaper that promoted "Earth Hour" in coordination with World Wildlife Foundation -- admit the failure of their anti-light protest? Or will they use the environmentalist epistemology of "post-normal science" and conclude that the failure of the protest never happened?

The job of objective journalism will probably be left up to bloggers like Tim Blair.