Earth Hour 'Slacktivism'

It's hard to turn out the light when you're too lazy to get off the couch.

With Earth Hour upon us yet again, Sun Media’s Brian Lilley questions the usefulness of sitting in the dark for one hour every year. “Earth Hour is only one small step beyond Slacktivism, the kind of protest you express by changing your Facebook status,” he writes. “If people really wanted to cut back on their emissions to the point that it would make a dramatic impact, they would stop driving their cars to work and stop buying all the latest gadgets like the iPad 2.” Of course most people don’t, and Lilley says that’s a good thing because booming profits from the energy industry are where Canadians get the money to pay for the social programs we love. These are valid points, but we could do without Lilley’s patronizing tone. Nobody in the environmental movement believes that one hour of powering down has a substantial impact on emissions, nor are most people unaware that our high standard of living is currently inextricably linked to fossil fuels. It’s not that the environmentalists are too dumb to figure this out; it’s that they’re not OK with it.

In the Halifax Chronicle Herald, Allan Crandlemire lays out the case for Earth Hour, admitting that it has no direct impact, but “in symbolic terms, the impact is huge. … Small commitments by lots of people can add up to big change. Earth Hour itself is proof of that.” We’re not quite sure what “big change” he’s referring to, but he brings up the good point that while the energy industry is lucrative for Canada as a whole, for individuals the cost of electricity is rising. “As fuel costs continue to rise, it makes more sense than ever to be more efficient.” Conservation could help drive down the cost of energy and would hardly cripple the energy industry we depend on. Everybody wins.

There are lots of stories in the local press today about how communities will be celebrating Earth Hour, but our favourite headline by far is this one, courtesy of the Castlegar Source, which surely describes a movement all Canadians can get behind.