Earth Hour again

This is funny -- I hadn't even heard about Earth Hour until a week or so before the day of the event. Talk about fantastic marketing, though -- it's dominated news for days. As a former advertising addict, I am fascinated by how quickly this got rolling and how fast it snowballed. A success? You bet your *derriere*. Here's some of the buzz today:

Atlanta, Georgia power use was down by 4%
Southern Co. reported Monday Georgia Power customers had an impact during Earth Hour on March 29.Georgia Power users in Atlanta cut electricity usage about 4 percent during Earth Hour on March 29.

Ottawa dropped 4%:
"Saturday night, Hydro Ottawa measured Ottawa's usage at 892,467 kWh between 8 and 9 o'clock, a reduction of 37,114 kWh or 4% compared to the same hour on the previous Saturday."

Chicago, Illinois cut power use by 7%:
"According to an updated report fromComEd, customers turning off lights and other appliances during WorldWildlife Fund's Earth Hour reduced electricity use by 7 percent both in theCity of Chicago and throughout its Northern Illinois service territory."

Toronto dropped 8.7%:
"At 8:36 p.m., Toronto reached its goal. The numbers hit their lowest – 2738 Megawatts – at 8:54 p.m. That's an 8.7 per cent drop."

Manila, Phillipines dropped 10.2%:
"Conservationists hailed “Earth Hour,” which saw hundreds of government, private and residential establishments turn off their lights from 8 to 9 p.m. last Saturday as an “overwhelming success.”

Victoria, Australia usage dropped 10.1%:
"The event resulted in a 10.1 per cent drop in energy use across Melbourne's CBD between 8pm and 9pm, Citipower figures showed."

Yay, World! And then...

... there's Calgary:
"According to Enmax figures, though, energy consumption increased from 1,050 megawatts at 7:45 p.m. to a peak of 1,060 megawatts 30 minutes later."

Not much I can add to that, at least not before midnight. Calgary blows dead bears.

CBC, shine a light

on me..."Heh".

Earth Hour shines a light on... right-wing moronitude

Whether last night's Earth Hour saved a pile of energy or not, it was successful -- it was a strategy that raised awareness of the climate change issue better than the holy grail of media time, a spot in the Superbowl, could ever hope to do. Earth Hour was interactive marketing at its finest: whether one participated or not (and apparently millions did -- Ontario's power usage was down by 3-5% -- make that 5.2% -- during that hour), Earth Hour was thought about, talked about, written about, argued about, wondered and worried about, blogged and bullshitted about -- whether it was disparaged or celebrated wasn't the point. Buzz was the point, and Mission Accomplished. There's more awareness of the climate change issue today than there was 24 hours ago.

On a vastly tinier scale, there's also more awareness of The Stupid that oozes from the deranged right-wing jerkoffosphere like pus from a festering sore. Earth Hour was called a lot of things by its detractors -- a commie conspiracy, groupthink, fascism (does that guy even know what "fascism" is?) etc. etc. blah blah blah yack yack yackety yack -- but by far the most ludicrous response was the wankosphere's lame-o attempt to try and offset some of whatever good the initiative might do. As CC noted, an adult who wasn't into Earth Hour would probably just say "No thanks, I think I'll pass", but adulthood is easy: you gotta fight for your right to be a dumbfuck. In doing so, the citizens of Lower Wingnuttia not only helped raise awareness of Earth Hour, but shone a halogen-bright light on their own stupidity.

Imagine if you will, a moderate, non-partisan individual googling "Earth Hour" to find out what all the fuss was about, and stumbling upon The Angry Villagers with their goofy exhortations to fire up all the appliances and lights, let vehicles idle for an hour and maybe put off that welding job until 8pm. It's one thing to say Earth Hour was a symbolic gesture tantamount to nothing, quite another to go out of your way to try to saboutage it (as if that would even be possible). It's like some bozo keying a Prius because they think the owner's an "enviro-weenie".

It's good to keep an eye on these cretins and occasionally point out their absurdity. But sometimes they do the job so well themselves that there's nothing left to do but stand back and avoid the splatter from their intellectual wet farts.

Cool

This will only work for another 15 minutes or so, but for you west coasters, check out stageleft.