If You Don’t Give A Damn The Rest Of The Year, What Difference Will An Hour Make?

A Comment by Doug Draper

I just turned on CBC Radio to the news that in this region of the world Earth Hour about to begin.

That means that for a full 60 minutes we are supposed to turn off all of our lights and feel our way around in the dark. I’ve done this for at least a couple of years now since this Earth Hour thing got started by some green-minded person somewhere in the land down under.

The idea behind this now-annual ritual, as I understand it, is that it is supposed to raise a little more public interest in energy conservation and environmental protection. But where is any evidence that it has been the least bit successful?

Our Ontario government just pulled the plug on subsidies for people interested in purchasing electric cars and Canada’s federal government, in its March 30 budget, has pretty well gutted what is left of Environment Canada and has weakened the federal environmental review process to a point where its oil industry buddies can go on playing around in the tar sands with virtually no public scrutiny.

 The way I am beginning to think about it, if we don’t give a damn about energy conservation and environmental protection the rest of the year, then what difference is bumpng into walls in the dark for an hour going to make. So now we’re about five minutes away from Earth Hour and I’m still not sure I am going to turn out all the lights here, especially the ones leading to rooms with toilets in them.

 By the way, if you are reading this post between the Earth Hour period, between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. this March 31, your computer screen is probably eating up as much electricity as at least a half a dozen lights in your home. See, I caught you.

Let’s try caring a little bit more about the earth the rest of the year.

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