Odd Anti-Earth Hour Thing: Human Achievement Hour
- Posted by: Andrew Price
- on March 30, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Saturday was Earth Hour. The idea: we all turn out our lights for an hour as a symbolic (and real…but mostly symbolic) recognition of humanity’s shared purpose in taking care of our planet. In response, a free-market think tank called the Competitive Enterprise Institute pledged to keep their lights on for “Human Achievement Hour”.
This is almost too ridiculous to talk about, but it’s worth mentioning a few things.
First, I think it’s fair to say that the CEI is missing the point of Earth Hour. Earth Hour is not an anti-achievement or anti-technology thing per se; it’s a pro-environmental-health thing. If we all had solar-powered lights, Earth Hour would not be about turning your lights off because Earth Hour is only about lights insofar as they harm the environment. So achievers: go ahead and achieve. Those of us who recognized Earth Hour aren’t part of a pro-failure movement that’s trying to bring you down.
Second, if people are meant to “celebrate and acknowledge” Human Achievement Hour by “simply going about [their] daily lives,” it’s really kind of a non-event, right?
Finally, the montage of human achievements is actually pretty awesome. It starts with human tool use and goes right through the artistic achievements of Jimi Hendrix, the moral and political achievements of Ghandi, and the technological achievements of space exploration. Framed differently, this would be a nice reminder of our potential to rise to the challenge of our environmental problems, rather than a case for inertia.
DISCUSSION: 8 Comments
spot on Andrew
Every reader of GOOD knows what Earth Hour is truly about. It’s everyone else we need to work on. The huge media corporation I work for specifically disallowed us to turn off our computers this past weekend (something about network patches and virus updates). Ah, 1998… Remember when we didn’t care about anything? Good times…
OK–I’ll step up and be the old curmudgeonly ass. (Consider this my Andy Rooney moment.) I didn’t participate in Earth Hour. And as someone who pays pretty close attention to energy and climate, I actually think it’s a pretty bad idea. Joel Makower (who, coincidentally, I was w/ on Saturday night–in a well lit bar) makes the case that I tend to agree with:
Turning off the lights for one hour seems a meek and hollow gesture, a feel-good measure that may fleetingly raise awareness, but does little to educate or change long-term habits, let along “take control over the future of our planet.” It is, simply put, a media event in search of actual content.
He then suggests that “we can do better by funneling the collective energy behind Earth Hour into a billion efforts to promote energy-efficient (and money-saving) products and practices to the masses.”George Marshall makes another good point–that going dark for Earth Hour “plays into the hands of our critics,” going so far as to call it “one of the most misguided and counterproductive actions I have ever seen.” Now I think that might be a little much, but I do agree that if we’re trying to reach a new audience to take climate change seriously, then “asking people to sit in the dark plays very well to a widely held prejudice that “the greens” want us all to go back to living in caves.”We need to embrace more positive metaphors–brighter futures, growth, light.
Right on, Andrew. *high five*
What you don’t seem to
understand is human achievement hour is a reaction to what people from the
institute, and individuals like myself (even though I just found out from you
about it) view earth hour as advocated by an incredibly self-righteous and
benighted (pun:)) group of individuals who severely underestimate the vital
energy sources used right now…in reality.
This institute is realistic
enough to realize green energy sources are so far fantasies of the future,
which demonstrate extremely limited potential right now, yet your no light howl
is a call for these energies now.
I mean are you kidding? it’s
not anti-achievement because you guys don’t have the backbone to say it kind of
actually is? You can justify any politician with that jargon on practically
every level.
If keeping your
lights off is a symbolic gesture for newer energy sources, why can’t a conscious
decision to keep your lights on be a symbolic gesture to reinforce the
imperative signficane of lights we use now?
About our daily lives?
lol…isn’t hearing about the great future of environmentalist part of daily
life too? To basically give them the finger with this counter initiative to
earth hour I believe (and again I don’t support or care for either hour) is far
from “missing the point”.
Daniel
I’d like to point out to both Ben Jervey and Daniel that there are many benefits to less public lighting that go well beyond saving energy, including, confusingly, lower crime rates. You can read all about it in this brilliant New Yorker article. We’d do well as a society to try to make our lives darker—not in our homes, but outside, in public places (where most of the major Earth Hour examples were focused). I am not sure where in the definition of “progress” it says that progress means that every building needs to have a giant, glowing logo on it.
I’m afraid I’m with Ben here. Earth Hour isn’t green, it’s green theatre. It’s evety bit as silly as Human Achievement Hour. Instead of celebrating Earth Hour next year, write to your friendly neighborhood politician and demand a carbon tax. –dccarles
Im only a kid, so i don’t really know what I’m talking about, but to me Earth Hour seems feeble. One hour,wow..life changing. Most people I know don’t bother with it anyway, or they forget so generally its a waste of time. You don’t hear kids talking about Earth Hour, you don’t see parents worrying.I can see that the message behind Earth Hour is what is important, and they need to focus on spreading that more than focusing on promoting a flimsy one hour project that lots of people take no notice of anyway. To me it’s just a media event, and while it may raise temporary awareness it isnt informing the public of the long term effects.So in my opinion, ditch Earth Hour, try something else.