Keith Lockitch at the Ayn Rand Institute wrote an excellent op-ed discussing the event. In “The Real Meaning of Earth Hour”, he considers the deeper symbolic significance of celebrating the extinguishing of our cities’ and monuments’ lights, writing:
“This blindness to the vital importance of energy is precisely what Earth Hour exploits. It sends the comforting-but-false message: Cutting off fossil fuels would be easy and even fun! People spend the hour stargazing and holding torch-lit beach parties; restaurants offer special candle-lit dinners. Earth Hour makes the renunciation of energy seem like a big party.
Participants spend an enjoyable sixty minutes in the dark, safe in the knowledge that the life-saving benefits of industrial civilization are just a light switch away. This bears no relation whatsoever to what life would actually be like under the sort of draconian carbon-reduction policies that climate activists are demanding: punishing carbon taxes, severe emissions caps, outright bans on the construction of power plants.”
Read the rest of the post here, preferably with the lights on.
Photo by NASA