Earth Hour

Landmarks around the world, including the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Empire State Building in New York, turned off their lights yesterday for Earth Hour. It was supposed to serve as an environmental protest highlighting global warming concerns.

In most of the western world, it more likely represented corporate pandering. The big guns in industry or finance or even tourism (as the Eiffel Tower and Roman Colosseum also were darkened) simply are pandering to public opinion. If you really want to make a statement, how about killing the power at noon on a Tuesday instead of 8:30 on a Saturday evening when there's nothing much going on? Oh, because that would actually interfere with business, and they don't feel that deeply about saving the Earth.

As to Chinese participation, that surely is no more than a dictatorship attempting to influence world opinion of her, just as the 2008 Summer Olympics were. We cannot take Beijing's part in the lights out display seriously; manipulation from a totalitarian regime does not impress.

Regular folks were expected to kick in too, by turning off appliances and such during that hour. It would be interesting to see how many individuals missed their weekend movies, or how many bars shut down during the height of the weekend rush, to show their support. The best bet is, not many.

This type of grandstanding is really only fake concern. What is truly damaging about it is that it's for a fake problem. Next Earth Hour, let's all turn on every light in every room of our abodes, and every appliance too, to highlight our disgust with the whole thing.