Sorry I’m posting late tonight, dear readers; I was participating in Earth Hour and couldn’t find my way back into the house without the lights on.I know many of you may be surprised that I, a big manly Tomcat who has previously shown nothing but disdain for the environmental movement, would actively participate in such an event, but I’m a sucker for purely symbolic actions that do nothing towards actually achieving what they’re supposed to achieve. It allows me to be a total wastrel the other 8,759 hours in the year, but still feel good about having “done my part.” I don’t feel hypocritical at all, and feelings are what it’s all about these days.
I love the fact that even if a billion people participate in Earth Hour, it would only save the equivalent of six seconds’ worth of China’s carbon output – however the fuck they’re measuring carbon output these days. Are we still hung up on CO2, or are we converting it to grams of the pure element now?
I saw an amusing article that noted how many people used candles during Earth Hour, and demonstrated mathematically that candles are worse for the environment than a 40-watt bulb. I (heart) cogent and logical thought.
Pebble bed reactors. Look them up. We have the technology and the skills to implement them right now. The effects would be immediate. The savings would be impressive. The pollution would be negligible.
I guarantee you that no one in government clamoring about the “Grid” or “Energy Independence” would give it even a passing thought, because those are not their actual goals. Power (not the grid kind) is what they're really after. As I’ve stated before: If they solved problems, they would be out of a job. They’d rather whip the sheep into pointless exercises like Earth Hour to prove how committed they are to the cause.
Talk about the lights being on with nobody home.
4 comments:
But it WAS a symbolic gesture, and a sweet one at that.
I know exactly which gesture it was: a loose fist held down about waist level and pumped back and forth.
See...the organizers specify that folks are to turn off non-essential lights and appliances for one hour. I already do that eight hours out of each day - when I'm asleep. Does that mean I'm eight times better than the Earth Hour participants? No. But I can guarantee you there are those that sat in the dark for an hour and will feel morally superior because of it.
The extra hour they ask for makes no difference in the amount of carbon being output by the power company (which has nothing to do with global warming, anyway). I've actually read some anecdotal evidence that the spike in demand when everyone turns their stuff back on makes the plants work harder than they would if people just went about their normal routine.
If the organizers said that they wanted people to become more aware of reducing power consumption in order to save money in these tight economies, that would be fine and dandy. But that's not their stated purpose. They want to save the Earth from getting a fever. It's ridiculous.
Sorry...didn't mean to get foam flecks all over you. :)
Oh? *wipes face daintily* They're calling that stuff "foam" now?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_bed_reactor#Thorium_High_Temperature_Reactor
Post a Comment