Originally Posted by
TheFifthElement
My first reaction is that it's just another gimmick, like Live Earth was. Yes people might turn their lights off for an hour a year, but won't walk or use a bike for short journeys, give up their 24/7 365 days a year availability of seasonal foodstuffs and foodstuffs not available in their locality, cheap clothes imported from the far east, or their annual foreign holiday, etc, etc. So what difference does it make, really, other than make people feel they have been socially responsible when in fact they've done very little? Neither does Earth hour increase the availability of environmentally friendly technology, or make it cheap enough to be used in the average home - for example availability of wind turbines/solar panels/heat exchangers for home use (at a reasonable price or, here's a thought, perhaps the Government could pay for them to be fitted to homes out of the extortionate tax on fuel (shock horror!)).
If people believe in climate change, and if they want to make a difference, then the difference is going to come from big lifestyle change, possibly a lifestyle change beyond that which most people would accept or, and this seems the more likely avenue, the development of better technology. Switching the lights off for an hour does nothing but turn us back to the 'dark ages'. It doesn't seem to me that moving backwards is the answer.