How about Earth Year instead of Earth Hour?
Participating in the event annually is pretty simple: All an individual or family has to do is turn off lights and non-essential appliances from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM local time. Many governments and landlords have gotten into the act of darkening properties they control, especially landmarks (skyscrapers, bridges, stadia, and the like), as well as issuing proclamations and statements about Earth Hour.
The symbolism is truly lovely, but a realist can't help but scoff at this idea. Why turn off the lights for one hour... and then turn them back on? What good does that do for the planet besides save an insignificant amount of energy?
(And, to be clear, I'm using the word insignificant in a relative sense. If we measure the amount of energy saved worldwide during that hour against worldwide energy usage - which is growing constantly - there's no comparison).
Instead of Earth Hour, we should have Earth Year. It should be the norm for structures and landmarks to be darkened at night. Save the lights for special occasions. Not only does would this save energy, it would save money and reduce light pollution, which has become a huge problem.
The Lake Washington School District, where I spent a good deal of my childhood, figured this out not so long ago. The district used to leave lights on to illuminate the exterior of its buildings at night. Nowadays, the lights are kept off, leaving school campuses dark and peaceful between dusk and dawn.
Likewise, I know many neighbors around Redmond who have replaced their standard porch or yard lights with modern, motion-activated versions which only turn on when someone is nearby, and then switch off automatically.
Unfortunately, the efforts of those who are trying to conserve are all too often quickly canceled out. Consider the City of Sammamish. The people who run Redmond's southern neighbor have stupidly lined the city's main thoroughfare, Southeast 228th Street, with a unbeliebably excessive number of streetlights. From the air, the four lane arterial must look like an airport runway. I've never liked driving it at night because it always reminds me how wasteful humans can be.
If I ran Sammamish, I'd remove all the streetlights from SE 228th. I don't see what purpose they serve. The street is mostly bounded by strip malls and apartment complexes which are adequately lit on their own. Drivers don't need streetlights to see where they're going in the dark; the headlights in today's cars are incredibly powerful and do a perfectly good job of that unaided.
But what about safety? Don't lights help deter unwanted criminal activity? Well, actually, no. The International Dark Skies Association (PDF) explains:
Light for the sake of light does not equal safety. Bright, glaring lights that illuminate some nighttime events and locations can diminish ambiance, but did you know that they can decrease security as well? Overly bright lighting creates a sharp contrast between light and darkness, making the places outside the area of illumination nearly impossible to see. Bad lighting can even attract criminals by creating deep shadows that offer concealment.Furthermore:
Permanent lights can allow criminals to see what they are doing and provide a showcase for vandals and graffiti artists to display their “work.”Imagine how much energy we could save if Seattle and its suburbs all passed laws requiring that vacant workplaces shut off exterior and interior lights at night, or else be fined (there would of course be an exception for occupied areas).
At the very least, cities could ask employers to turn off the lights.
Utilities like Puget Sound Energy have come up with another technique: Shaming customers by showing them how much energy they're using versus their unnamed neighbors, which perhaps could be taken to a new level.
My point here is this: Symbolism isn't going to solve the climate crisis. As a DECA alum, I give Earth Hour an A+ grade; it's a fine marketing concept.
But it's going to take a lot more than marketing to cool and calm our planet's fever. It's going to take decisive action. It's going to take a real commitment to conservation. As I'm sure fellow dark skies advocates would agree: what better way to get started than by adopting the habit of keeping lights off at night?
Comments:
While I understand the dynamics of why saving energy makes sense, I feel like clean energy is so abundant on this planet that there's no reason every single person on this planet can't power anything they want forever. Geothermal!! but my mom always taught me this, and I'm thinking until we stop using coal this would be a great idea
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