Comments on: Earth Hour: A little … underwhelming

By: Vandriel

Vandriel — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:22:00 +0000

Ha!

You would think that they world have OK’d it at the beginning instead of allowing it to go so long without saying a thing and then bringing it back up when it was too late. I don’t understand it at all.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:15:03 +0000

I know quite a few people (hardcore environmentalists, mostly) who ignored Earth Hour because they disagreed with the whole concept. Its a minimal act, and even if you were to argue that it was about awareness, it didn’t do a great job. It’s nice to have everyone thinking about the planet for a bit, but did anyone go away really understanding more about the ways we can prevent further damage, besides for switching off the odd light?
I was particularly amused by someone I know who decided to celebrate Earth Hour by driving to the middle of nowhere with friends and having a braai. That’s the lack of awareness that those behind Earth Hour should have addressed while they had everyone’s attention.

By: Graham

Graham — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:33:38 +0000

I was watching the same view from Devils Peak, Bridget, and yip – underwhelming [one of my favourite words] was pretty much how we thought about it. It took the longest time to spot what had actually changed. Some more thoughts on it at
SRI-Extra. I disagree with those who say awareness is not action. It just cannot be all that there is…

By: brent

brent — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:14:13 +0000

It failed because you can’t fool all the people all the time, most people know a chattering class con when they see it.

Saving the environment, climate change (or whatever it will next be called) are vital activites that will only work when applied from the top down ie let all the deals speaking out start acting instead; let Gore and co bann themselfs from flying for the next 2 years – we have been Skype conferencing/board meeting for 4 years now so why can’t the so called ‘climate changers’ do like wise.

Make them “do what i do not do what i say” starting from Gore who’s family consumes 20 times the energy of the average US household.

Brent – environmentalist not climate changer

By: Bridget McNulty

Bridget McNulty — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:17:26 +0000

Well, I’m glad I wasn’t the only disappointed one! And I suppose the point is more to raise awareness than to save power… I wonder if there are any statistics to show if it’s working?
Their website – http://www.earthhour.org/home/ – says there are 14 066 members, that doesn’t seem like much, does it?

By: Miss Dew

Miss Dew — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:50:44 +0000

I must say I too waited with bated breath in Durban (and I didn’t even think to climb up somewhere high like you – I just assumed I would be able to see everything go balck from where I stood in my home. It was very dissapointing.

By: Winkie

Winkie — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:02:35 +0000

@ CB: I too have not reproduced, but I don’t think that means I’ve done my bit for the world! You’re middle-class, right? So you’re using as much GHG as a family with four kids in rural South America. “Our beautiful planet is doomed,” indeed, if we don’t start changing our habits.

Earth Hour doesn’t achieve much in terms of reducing power use etc at the point when it happens. (And I happen to think the biggest silliness is having events and concerts around it – the Sandton concert is a bit like the commercialisation of Christmas.) BUT if you all registered for Earth Hour, you would have made a statement which can be used to stir the powers-that-be off their fat, GHG-producing butts. (Grin) We have to make it clear that we, the citizens of earth, care enough to take some action. Hey, maybe we’ll progress to boycotting their products or (what a thought!) voting them out of office!

By: Jacques

Jacques — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:09:29 +0000

I was on the other side, Plattekloof with a full panoramic view of the whole of Cape Town. It was totally pathetic. I think next Eskom, should just trip all power for an hour, we should be in complete darkness, I want to see the stars baby! If you are concerned about security, stay at home… This did not even happen while load shedding was going on, and it will make people realise how much they rely on electricity and appreciate it more.

By: Sha

Sha — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:47:19 +0000

At least it wasn’t as bad as JHB. I went to the Earth Hour concert at Sandton square. While it was a lovely vibe, Sandton Square just didn’t come to the party. They didn’t switch off their outside lights, the library lights, shops in the square didn’t turn off their illuminated signs. As all the eager participants stood in the square holding candles waiting for darkness to fall we all felt incredibly cheated and would have prefered to be at home- in the dark!

By: And A Mojo

And A Mojo — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:38:11 +0000

You took the words out of my mouth!!
I was so disappointed that I couldn’t bring myself to utter a word about it on my blog. The best the City could do was turn off the lights that show off the mountain at night. They should be off anyway!! No excuses, next year better be a decent show that Cape Town would like to save the world from climate change. The moon (our future home) doesn’t have nearly the kind of views that Cape Town does!