BY MIKE CETERA
Perhaps we should stop making "statements" about climate change and instead start doing something, like holding ourselves accountable for fuel standards or demanding (and then using) more public transportation. But, no, we Americans love symbolism much more than making tough choices.
Let's turn the lights out for an hour. That'll show 'em we're serious.
The world will "celebrate" Earth Hour on Saturday, "an international event that asks households and businesses to turn off their lights and non-essential electrical appliances for one hour on the evening of 29 March at 8PM local time to promote electricity conservation and thus lower carbon emissions."
In protest (not because I don't believe in the cause, but because this event is utter pap), I plan to turn every light and appliance on in my house (I kid.). What will you do to celebrate?
A number of Fox Valley businesses and governments are encouraging people to participate, according to a story we plan to publish on Saturday.
Dan Proft, writing on the conservative Web site Illinois Review, nails the self-aggrandizing nature of this movement nicely:
The desire to be relevant and to have a positive impact on the world is a good instinct. But it's lost in the self-involved nature of exercises like Earth Hour.The Gandhian ideal "to be the change you wish to see in the world" requires thoughtful, measured action toward an end bigger than one's self.
Earth Hour, by contrast, smacks of desperation for self-actualization.
Rather than creating a platform for compelling, fact- intensive arguments about eco-threats or creative ideas for green energy, Earth Hour is another in an endless series of symbolic events that define intergalactic participation in "something" as an end in itself.
For this country to go green, we're going to have to take things a bit more seriously than living by tips to conserve energy. It will require sacrifice and a change in how we live.
From Thomas Friedman's piece in the New York Times Magazine "The Power of Green":
The dirty little secret is that we're fooling ourselves. We in America talk like we're already "the greenest generation," as the business writer Dan Pink once called it. But here's the really inconvenient truth: We have not even begun to be serious about the costs, the effort and the scale of change that will be required to shift our country, and eventually the world, to a largely emissions-free energy infrastructure over the next 50 years.
And this can't happen without intervention from that dirty little "g" word -- government.
The market alone won't work. Government's job is to set high standards, let the market reach them and then raise the standards more. That's how you get scale innovation at the China price. Government can do this by imposing steadily rising efficiency standards for buildings and appliances and by stipulating that utilities generate a certain amount of electricity from renewables -- like wind or solar. Or it can impose steadily rising mileage standards for cars or a steadily tightening cap-and-trade system for the amount of CO2 any factory or power plant can emit. Or it can offer loan guarantees and fast-track licensing for anyone who wants to build a nuclear plant. Or -- my preference and the simplest option -- it can impose a carbon tax that will stimulate the market to move away from fuels that emit high levels of CO2 and invest in those that don't.
Yeah, an acquaintance of mine sent me an invitation to celebrate Earth Hour and I had much the same reaction as you did.
I guess it's fine as a stunt to try to raise awareness of the issue. And I certainly have a number of friends who think global warming is a crock dreamt up by Democrats who hate America. So, if it creates a convert here or there, maybe it's worth some of the effort. But, I too, will pass.
I wonder how many people who "did something" by going dark for that hour then celebrated by loading their 2.3 kids into their full-size SUV to leave their McMansion to drive a mile to the restaurant to have dinner, the leftovers from which no doubt came home in some sort of plastic-foam container and will be thrown, food and all, into the waste stream in a week?
But at least they made a statement, didn't they?
from the administration you elected..TWICE..(actually once)
here
so yes Mike..government intervention..from a government that has led the populace to believe that "climate change" is just a theory from some tree huggers... sorta like evolution.
How about this scenario for Aurora:
Public transportation (a streetcar on Downer!) serving a multi use live/work downtown, which provides the citizens with useful services and goods. Hydro power abetted by other renewables providing heat and electricity. Fertile farm areas ringing the town, providing not only food, but employment. I could go on..but I would just continue to describe Aurora Illinois as it was in 1938. that's not progress..that's..uhh..unprogress!
What we really need here is another Outlet Mall! preferably on the outskirts. next to another subdivision...how's this for a name: The Winds of Aurora Pointe West by the Sea..a Green Place to Live.
You got it right! Americans love symbolism, but don't want to be "uncomfortable" or have less (in their perceptions at least). Ex: humongous American flags to show patriotism while they live in huge houses, often w/o any kids to fill them! Bumper stickers crowing about our greatness, plastered all over the suv's. Black people marching in the streets, led by their reverends, who state they will "take back their communities", yet nothing changes. Consumers who think they should be given a medal for buying an energy saving lightbulb, but who cannot be bothered to recycle. Numerous awards for our kids who get a treat, award, trip, etc. for farting correctly! Seriously, anything little Janie or Johnny does is absolutely miraculous!!!
I could go on ad nauseum. I would like to continue my efforts at improving our environment, contributing to betterment of people, yet folks like me somehow managed to get penalized when we do. Or, others are given the goodies while we look askance. And often incentives for realistically doing anything is expensive or the once traditional reward is taken away. Example: windowtinting in FL used to get a tax credit. Jeb Bush took that away. Only certain vehicles got the credit for gas mileage. I pay the same cost for garbage/recycling that my un-recycling neighbors do, who even have more garbage!