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Doing my bit for ‘Earth Day’…

It is 8:30 pm in London and ‘Earth Day’ has begun. Every single light in our house and garden have now been turned on.

21 comments to Doing my bit for ‘Earth Day’…

  • Jeff

    Good stuff. It’s only 4:30 in the Eastern US time zone. Here’s what I just posted on Facebook though:

    At 8:30 tonight, after I’ve turned on every light in my apartment, cranked the heat as high as it will go, started the empty dishwasher on pots and pans setting I plan on using the remote start on my car so I can use as many natural resources with as little effort on my part as possible. Happy “Earth Hour” everyone!

  • Paul Marks

    Well I have to be at work by 0600 (really 0500 of course).

    But I am not turing things off and going to bed till after “Earth Hour” either.

    A small gesture of contempt.

    But then I am a bitter and twisted man – and proud of it.

  • A Liberal in Lakeview

    All three of you, Perry, Jeff, and Paul Marks, are being adolescent. Foolish, too. Why not just walk around the neighborhood with signs pinned to your backs? They would read…

    “I Despise Nature.
    I Pour Used Motor Oil Into The Creek.
    I Torture Small Animals.
    Abolish All Welfare.
    Kick Me. I’m Slow.”

    And so on. The leftists and environazis will have a good laugh. Maybe even follow you home, too. But they won’t change their thinking for the better, now will they?

    Next year, remember that indifference will be enough.

  • Next year, remember that indifference will be enough.

    Wrong. Indifference is tantamount to acquiescence. And it is not enough to just not play along with the Endarkenment… refuse the consensus, loudly and often.

  • Jeff

    Also after my comment on Facebook drew a few “You need to get laid” jokes (it’s funny cause it’s true!) I managed to point out that I’m not actually going to do the crap I mentioned, as it would be just as pointless as the idea of turning out my lights for an hour.

    I think this nonsense needs to be ridiculed as much as possible.

  • RAB

    Well it may be adolescent of us ALIL, but it is no more adolescent than Earth Day itself. A knee jerk self righteous movement of retards that are gonna feel smug about turning down their love light for an hour (as if that will make the slightest difference to anything except their self posturing regard), when I want to turn mine up.

    Besides, it’s my goddam money I’m burning, not theirs. If they think they somehow “Own” my resourses, which I already pay through the nose for, I would be grateful for them helping out when the bills come in. I won’t be holding my breath though eh?

  • newrouter

    every day is earth day in north korea

  • Laird

    FWIW, I have yet to see anything at all in the US about “Earth Hour” this year. Of course, I might just have missed it (I don’t spend a whole lot of time with the mainstream media), but I think if it were getting an ordinary amount of hype I’d have noticed it. (The only reason I even knew there was one this year is an earlier SI article, and I had to resort to Google to find out when it was scheduled.) The only mention I could find was this rather disappointed-sounding article from a Canadian newspaper. It seems that even the leftists on this side of the Atlantic have lost interest. What a pity. (Sorry, I don’t have a sarcasm font.)

  • Roue le Jour

    It would be interesting to have the figures from the electricity generators on how much reduction in demand there actually was and how much fuel that saved, wouldn’t it?

    My estimate would be in the region of fifty percent of eff all.

  • RW

    I knew you were an illuminatus, Perry.

  • What’s going on? I thought Earth Day was April 22nd – Lenin’s birthday…

  • Charles Temm

    another Day to do…what? Haughty earth firsters in the West will shut down power to some things for an hour. The UK has some areas proudly saying entire government owned buildings/sites will shut down.

    Meanwhile China continues its race to keep ahead of the revolutionary mob with mass building of everything including more coal plants in a year then the entire US builds in a decade.

    Its just more egotism for those who can and those who don’t have a clue how the niceties they are shutting off for an hour are created/powered.

    Finally on a happy note, greenies in America rant about not drinking bottled beer as its exorbitant in energy use. Of course in our house that was taken as a challenge.

  • I knew you were an illuminatus, Perry.

    LOL!

  • Bod

    They deferred Earth Day at my office in New York until Monday, so that all the wage slaves could switch off their PCs before leaving for home, allowing them to enjoy the thrill of self-righteousness all over again.

    My machine will be left on. Along with its 4 screens (LCD’s unfortunately, and not CRTs) because I’ll construct some bogus reason why I have to execute some database code late in the evening. And if someone switches it off, there’ll be an interesting email to HR the following morning.

  • Here you go:

    Earth Hour, 2011: Saturday 26th March, 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM
    Earth Day, 2011: Friday 22nd April

    There’s also Earth Week, 2011: 14th-21st, 15th-22nd or 18th-24th April, depending on which website you look at.

    And we’ve just had Climate Week in the UK: 21st – 27th March – “a supercharged national occasion that offers an annual renewal of our ambition and confidence to combat climate change.”

    Somehow blinked and missed this “supercharged national occasion”? Me too!

  • To echo further… I would have been completely unaware of “Earth” Hour if not for this very blog post. Perhaps we are winning, after all..?

  • A Liberal in Lakeview

    Perry,

    Perhaps I should have written that “next year, your indifference, but not necessarily that of anyone else, will be an improvement over your response this year.” But, being defensive and combative, you’ll probably interpret this statement as a suggestion that you be indifferent the year after, too.

    Anyhow, you wrote: And it is not enough to just not play along with the Endarkenment… refuse the consensus, loudly and often.

    So, what’s the best refusal to the consensus?

    “Every single light in our house and garden have now been turned on. [So take that finger in your eye, you evil Endarkeners!]”

    What a powerful statement of nonacquiescence. But did you notice how easy it is for them to make you react in an unbalanced way? Say, why not make your statement loudly and often by repeating it every night. It’ll entice the Endarkeners to burn down your house and to rip up your garden when they figure out your motive. Maybe they’ll even girdle your trees. (After all, they’re more malevolent than they are consistent.)

    Of course, when you drive up demand for power, the signal to the interventionists will be that more interventionism is needed, i.e. that more subsidies to power companies are needed. Since your own extra usage will be trivial in comparison to power generated, why not encourage all of your readers to follow your example? Don’t forget to go long on shares of solar panel makers, neodymium mining companies, etc. before your campaign begins.

    Maybe you’ll even win over a few intelligent people who think Earth Day is weird but had not protested against it thus far.

    Yeah, right. More likely you’ll win over some cranks and BNP supporters, and convince more people that “social individualists” tend to be adolescent rebels. Nice work. But at least you’ll still have an emotional response and the empty gesture of an impotent nerd. Split infinitives, too.

  • But did you notice how easy it is for them to make you react in an unbalanced way?

    Unbalanced? They say “turn your lights off for an hour” and say why… so I turned them all on for an hour and said why. Sounds pretty balanced to me.

  • Laird

    Clearly, the Earth Week/Day/Hour proponents are devotees of the Animal House philosophy:

    “I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part!”

    And they’re just the guys to do it!

  • I notice the incubators and dialysis machines at the local hospital didn’t get switched off. Selfish bastards.

  • Stonyground

    That, Endivior is a really good point. These people should realise that it isn’t just a few little luxuries like lights and hot water that everyone would have to do without, should their ideas be taken to their logical conclusion.