My blog title will no doubt startle some... While visiting QuiltingMick's blog this evening she mentioned Earth Hour and her cynicism. I soundly second it. I commented on her blog with the following
Earth Hour, Clean Up Australia, Plant a Tree Day... they all give folks the impression that they've 'done their bit' for the environment rather than making long-term changes for the other 364 days a year. If WWF was serious about getting people to change then they could have pushed a couple of messages about turning the lights off in empty rooms EVERYDAY. Or turning your appliances off at the wall EVERYDAY. I'm happy to go along with the crowd on these days too, but maybe we should say to ourselves 'for every "day" that I do, I'll do something "every day"...
I've worked in the environment department for several years and have always been frustrated by the 'days'. I understand that it raises the profile of many issues and for that we should be happy. But it more often absolves people of their guilt for not doing anything the rest of the time. So that is my challenge to you. Make a commitment to do something for more than just one hour a year.
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OK. So we've done the earth hour and I have to say that the moment 9 am rolled around, we suddenly became a lot more careful about what lights we have on around the house. I always thought we were being careful with having too many lights, but sitting in candelight for an hour makes you start realising what lighting you NEED and what you don't. I dunno - hopefully the rest of the world is taking away the same message as I just did. And I didn't think I had anything to learn (slaps self silly).
Last night, as we played Gin Rummy by candlelight, Dotter said "We should do this every week, not just one a year." So hopefully the 'one off days' can bring bigger changes, too.
Heh - the word verification for this post was "xrmdwax" - Dr Wax! He he he.
Symbols are only useful when people understand their meaning. Hopefully more people will take the meaning into the rest of the year.
I made a comment about the whole earth hour being a crock of shit in the tea room at work, and was just about slapped silly. When I suggested instead people caught a bus to work one or twice a month, walked to the shops and used non plastic bags, they all looked at me like I was some type of freak. Now, these are all educated people, but they clearly give no thought to the impact their actions have every day.
I was astounded! They seemed to believe, that partaking in an hour of candle light would save the world and their conscious would be clear.
These are the same people however who don't have time to knit, because clearly I must have more hours in my day (or perhaps I don't watch as much telly as they do!)
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