Earth Hour - Doing it in the dark

By KelvinR

On Saturday (March 23), millions of people across the world will switch off their lights off for 60 minutes as part of Earth Hour.

In case it has so far passed you by, Earth Hour is the brainchild of environmental group WWF, which wants us to “focus on the kind of energy we use”. The group says: “To create a better future for our planet we need to move away from dirty fossil fuels and onto clean, green renewable energy which works with the awesome power of nature”.

Now, you’ll either agree with all, some or none of that statement, but Earth Hour throws up another point worthy of debate.



Instead of turning off the lights and sitting in the dark contemplating the beauty of wind turbines and solar panels, we could instead think about the billions of people around the world who don’t have any lights to switch off in the first place.

If there is such a thing as a global energy crisis, it has got nothing to do with renewables vrs coal/gas/oil – it is one of haves and have-nots: those who have electricity and those who do not.

The phrase “keeping the lights on” is bandied about so often by western world politicians that it has become a cliché and is pretty meaningless anyway, because it is unlikely to ever happen. Yet “turning the lights on” is a fundamental goal for many Asian and African governments.

If you are planning to take part in Earth Hour – and I’m not suggesting for a moment that you should not – try instead using your candlelit 60 minutes to think about what it must be like to be without electricity for 24 hours a day, seven days a week.