# Did you / Are you participating in Earth Hour tonight? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 28, 2010, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076 "2010-03-28T02:30:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/21 "2010-03-28T14:33:23Z")
We did it, do it every year. I know it’s only symbolic, but I don’t mind. Besides I like having the computer, tv’s, lights off. We play scrabble by candlelight and it’s a nice time for us. Of course, I do many other things that actually have impact on the environment. We have traveled a lot in the 3rd world and, for us, it’s just a reminder of how lucky we are to have electricity and hot water, tvs, computers, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/22 "2010-03-29T04:19:15Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > I was rather dreading it, but it was actually kind of nice sitting there and chatting by candlelight. We did it “properly” - no electrical devices of any sort were on for the duration. > . You burned a candle to show solidarity in reducing Co2? Snicker ---
**Author:** ![Pedro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/919ad9/32.png) [@Pedro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pedro)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/23 "2010-03-29T04:40:10Z")
No. Using candle light for an hour is silly and doesn’t accomplish anything. I’m a card carrying tree hugger and I try to keep non-essential electricity usage to a minimum anyway so I feel it’s a pointless feel good gesture. For something wasteful like a public monument or some such I guess I could get behind the symbolism. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/24 "2010-03-29T16:37:03Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > I honestly feel that Earth Hour is the worst kind of tree-hugging lefty psuedo-Communist bullshit, and refuse to take part. Well, as long as you have a good excuse. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/25 "2010-03-29T19:09:16Z")
I didn’t know about it. ---
**Author:** ![wisernow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@wisernow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wisernow)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/26 "2010-03-29T19:30:58Z")
If we could do this one hour thing everyday, with proper advance planning, then I would. But one hour in a year, that’s just eyewash!! You may not consume energy for the hour, but the consumption of energy on the generating end is hardly affected. In fact I think it is more harmful for the power generating stations whose equipment have to balance the fluctuations of the load going off and then coming back again at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Grapefruit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@Grapefruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grapefruit)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/27 "2010-03-29T20:05:08Z")
> [@EmAnJ](#): > > Thanks for threadshitting guys. Cheers. That is such a presumptuous accusation. Your poll wasn’t “How are you participating?” It’s “ARE you participating?” Which means that people are perfectly within reason to say no and explain why they didn’t. I’m glad that the majority people on here see it as a sham. I had to tell an acquaintance to stop inviting me to the Facebook event for earth hour and it raised her heckles about how everyone should do their part in saving the earth and this would raise awareness, and blah blah blaaaaaah. Funny thing is, last I calculated my EF, it was 2.6 (which is a loooooot lower than the national average) and since then, I’ve reduced my food impact (less take-out and more vegetables) whereas she keeps driving her gas guzzling SUV. So. WHO exactly cares about the environment more? Is it even a freakin’ contest? ---
**Author:** ![EmAnJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/28 "2010-03-29T20:13:01Z")
> [@Grapefruit](#): > > That is such a presumptuous accusation. Your poll wasn’t “How are you participating?” It’s “ARE you participating?” > > Which means that people are perfectly within reason to say no and explain why they didn’t. > > I’m glad that the majority people on here see it as a sham. I had to tell an acquaintance to stop inviting me to the Facebook event for earth hour and it raised her heckles about how everyone should do their part in saving the earth and this would raise awareness, and blah blah blaaaaaah. > > Funny thing is, last I calculated my EF, it was 2.6 (which is a loooooot lower than the national average) and since then, I’ve reduced my food impact (less take-out and more vegetables) whereas she keeps driving her gas guzzling SUV. So. WHO exactly cares about the environment more? Is it even a freakin’ contest? That’s great, and I get it. I didn’t put the right options in my poll, but understand that THREADSHITING is where someone comes in and says things like ‘No, in fact, I’m going to turn on everything in my house and burn as much energy as I can just because I can.’ I’m fine with people who don’t want to participate and giving their reasons why and what they do instead. My mistake for not including all the options people would have wanted to see, and I agree that the options do make my question sound presumptuous, but that wasn’t my intent and it was a mistake. Additionally, people must be stupid to think that those participating in Earth Hour think their hour of reduced consumption makes a difference. IT DOESN’T. But it brings attention to the issue, which is the gd point. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/29 "2010-03-29T20:20:36Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > I honestly feel that Earth Hour is the worst kind of tree-hugging lefty psuedo-Communist bullshit, and refuse to take part. This. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/30 "2010-03-29T20:40:22Z")
> [@EmAnJ](#): > > That’s great, and I get it. I didn’t put the right options in my poll, but understand that THREADSHITING is where someone comes in and says things like ‘No, in fact, I’m going to turn on everything in my house and burn as much energy as I can just because I can.’ I’m fine with people who don’t want to participate and giving their reasons why and what they do instead. > > My mistake for not including all the options people would have wanted to see, and I agree that the options do make my question sound presumptuous, but that wasn’t my intent and it was a mistake. > > Additionally, people must be stupid to think that those participating in Earth Hour think their hour of reduced consumption makes a difference. IT DOESN’T. But it brings attention to the issue, which is the gd point. > > :dubious: Yours was a sincere question, **EmAnJ** , and I’m sorry if the responses were a little snarkier than you’d hoped. So I’ll give you my straight, non-snarky answer: No, I did not participate. I had a task at that time which required the use of my computer. Otherwise, I may do it next year – it may be an “ultra-liberal, tree-hugging, ineffectual hippie movement,” but I can certainly live without electricity for an hour. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/31 "2010-03-29T21:29:01Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > You burned a candle to show solidarity in reducing Co2? > > Snicker I know, I know! But we have evil polluting brown coal for electricity generation here, so the candle is probably still better! ---
**Author:** ![BigNik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/73ab20/32.png) [@BigNik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigNik)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/32 "2010-03-29T23:48:10Z")
It’s actually counterproductive. You can’t shut down a power station for an hour. All they do is shovel the same amount of coal/gas/whatever into it and hit the clutch so that it doesn’t power the turbines. So total carbon production saved equals zero. Amount of carbon used in producing promo materials, travelling to “group Earth Hour sites” and burning candles is greater than zero. So Earth hour’s emissions are a substantial net positive. In addition to that, the “home” Earth Hour in Sydney is sponsored by the same newspaper that sponsored the big light festival last year. So why can’t I vote “no - it’s counterproductive and run by hypocrites”? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/33 "2010-03-30T00:25:57Z")
I make a point of turning all the lights on. You see, I’m a total asshole. ---
**Author:** ![EmAnJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/34 "2010-03-30T00:32:01Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I make a point of turning all the lights on. > > You see, I’m a total asshole. Did you really, actually turn all your lights on at 8:30 on Saturday? Really? ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/35 "2010-03-30T01:17:58Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > I participated accidentally, by being asleep. Interestingly, most of the people I know who earnestly participated turned off their lights, but left their TVs and/or computers on, which to me seems to violate the spirit of the idea. But the Vancouver Sun said that the Canucks game was certainly an essential use of electricity, but since I’m in Montreal I interpreted that to mean the Habs game was as well! I had the TV on, my laptop (can I pretend one of the e’s in EeePC stands for environment?) and a standup light in the living room on. I was doing homework (yes, on a Saturday evening. I have no life) and watched the game at the same time. I just had other priorities and felt they were more important than a feel-good symbolic action with very little actual impact. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/36 "2010-03-30T01:42:22Z")
We turned all the lights in our house out at that time. But that was just co-incidence, because we were going out into the hot tub. While out there, we realized it was Earth Hour. ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/37 "2010-03-30T01:44:35Z")
Missing an answer: no, I wasn’t at home. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/38 "2010-03-30T02:27:09Z")
> [@EmAnJ](#): > > Did you really, actually turn all your lights on at 8:30 on Saturday? Really? Actually, I forgot this year, I was busy. I did last year though, and the year before. To make up for this year, next year I’m going to not only put the lights on, but also mount an absolutely Griswoldesque number of Christmas lights. plus two hundred floodlights and one of those spotlight jobs, and rent a gigantic set of speakers and, when Earth Hour starts I’m going to turn them all on and boom a Sousa march over the speakers at about forty seven thousand decibels, and a giant neon sign will light up saying “NUCLEAR POWER RULES!!!” I’m hoping to get hate mail! ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/39 "2010-03-30T03:29:01Z")
The other thing I like to point out to the tree-hugging hippie brigade is that if I wanted to go without electricity and modern conveniences and generally live like it was the mid-19th century, I’d become a full-time, hardcore Living History Re-Enactor. But I rather like living in the 21st century with its electricity, internets, jet aircraft, computers, phones, televisions, motorcars, and so forth, so I won’t be participating in pointless feel-good Commie tree-huggery, and further, I’d encourage others to avoid it as well. As for “getting people to think about it”- well, there’s lots of things I think about but don’t see international grass-roots movements for; “Megalomania Day” or “Hardcore Lesbian Porn Hour” or “Banish sport from general TV” or anything like that. Just because people are thinking about an issue doesn’t mean they can, are, or _should_ be doing anything about it. ---
**Author:** ![MegaBee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@MegaBee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MegaBee)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076/40 "2010-03-30T13:03:51Z")
I didn’t participate. It’s Facebook-status environmentalism, a way to feel like you’re doing something without actually doing anything. I didn’t go out of my way to burn more electricity, either. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-are-you-participating-in-earth-hour-tonight/534076.md?page=3)