Earth Hour: Supporters vs. critics
The campaign seems to be pitting bloggers into 2 camps, the supporters and the critics.
The supporters are euphoric that they get to be part of something cool and hip. They like the message although they may not be exactly sure what it is (to save electric bill lah! One girl remarked.) Everyone loves theme parties and we need to create awareness, they say.
The critics’ main beef: turning off the lights for an hour and thinking that it’ll make a difference is a joke. All it is is happy hour and the hype is not sustainable. This is not a carbon neutral event, because the debris and emissions created by the euphoria could prove more harmful than the damage it seeks to prevent. Can’t the money be used to do really meaningful activities like neighborhood recycling centers. Anyone remember Live Earth 2007? Why so quiet now?
Personally, I think there are valid points on each side. I support Earth Hour because despite its drawbacks, its doing something no global warming roadshow, blockbuster movie or NGO has been able to do – create real excitement and buy-in around a cause, on a global scale.
Yes its a lot of hype. Yes, many of those who respond to the message are (still) ignorant of the real story behind global warming. But it doesn’t matter. Curiosity is always the first step. No point in talking about a cause if people aren’t curious about it in the first place. At this stage it seems to be about planting seeds, some of which may ripen into something bigger later.
On the critics side, the advantage you have is that you would’ve been exposed to the urgency of global warming a lot earlier than the newbie who is just getting introduced to the cause. Same mission, different timelines. One needs to grow up. The other has grown up and wants to see real action. We’re all on the same side, believe it or not.
So lets take this whole thing in perspective. Resolve to act rather than talk. Explain rather than criticize. Then we should be well on our way.
Damien Tan 
well, there are always these 2 groups of people – one will support and one will go against it.. yin and yang.. =)
but i support earth hour – so that kinda makes me one of the supporters.. =P
Good that you’re a supporter. Those who criticize it are supporters too in my opinion. Its just that they have already passed the introduction stage (which is what Earth Hour is about) and are impatient to go on to big and serious action.
i support Earth Hour too, but not those parties. =_= seems like people are celebrating earth’s birthday instead.
Haha, yeah, we never pass any opportunity for a good time. 😀
Heck. I think I’ll keep only the Ridsect on. No point getting stung by mosquitos while trying to save earth.
Some prefer to use cigarettes. Cheaper, enjoyable, biodegradable and will eventually kill you like an aerosol does. 🙂
It’s a choice between dying eventually of a probability of inhaling insect repellents or quickly and surely of mosquito-borne diseases. Where I live, mosquitoes are a murder.
Yeah, mosquitoes …. kill one and another 5 will come to replace it.
I made that comment about Ridsect (I actually use Vape mats) because there’s the never-ending battle between conservation and the fight against nature while hoping to maintain that ecological balance.
You can live with nature but you run into danger of becoming a victim. The tiger you’re trying to protect only see you as food when he’s hungry enough to ignore your body odour.
Same thing with mosquitoes. They’ll happily inject you with malaria or dengue virus no matter how friendly you are to their survival. (Where that virus come from is another story.) What you can do to keep that ecological balance while living in a mosquito-infested area is install nettings. Use none of aerosols and the minimum of repellents if you can’t put up screens for the whole house.
Is it possible global-warming is something to keep the balance between human and nature by increasing virus and bacteria population as well as their vectors because it looks like humans are winning the war?
I’m chewing on that…
We humans have been assailed countless times – bubonic plague, TB, smallpox, ebola, HIV, and more recently bird flu. As if that’s not enough, then came earthquakes, floods, and hurricances and the occasional meteor. We seem to get tougher, not weaker so global warming seems to be the logical next step forward. And if that doesn’t work, global freezing might just do the trick. 😀