Maybe I am just a crab, but I found the whole concept of “Earth Hour” to be ridiculous. For those of you who may have missed it, Earth Hour was an event that happened March 28, 2009 where businesses, governments, and people around the globe turned off their lights from 8:30pm to 9:30pm. This is how the event was marketed:
“This year, Earth Hour was transformed into the world’s first global election, between Earth and global warming. For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have an opportunity to cast their vote for Earth. WWF are urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes by the time world leaders meet in Copenhagen for the Global Climate Change Conference in December 2009. This meeting will determine official government policies to take action against global warming, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol. It is the chance for the people of the world to make their voice heard.”

In my role as a researcher, I have spent some time studying what makes for an effective intervention to promote behavior change, and as a meditation practitioner, I can say I run into the notion of mindfulness every once and a while. So I would say yes, one of the very big first steps is that individuals need to take is being aware of an issue or a problem. But what are we becoming aware of? Is turning off my lights for an hour really a way to “vote earth”?
I knew I had a bad attitude about it to start, but I figured I would wait and see how it went. I will admit that it was exciting to think about Las Vegas going dark. When the big event finally happened, I have to say the main result for me was not feeling like I made my voice heard, but instead discovering that most of my flashlights are not functioning and realizing that I don’t have very many candles in case of an emergency. It felt like using a band aid being used to fix cancer or using a dollar to try to bribe a politician. It was an appeal to the lowest common denominator – let’s try to find something that won’t offend anybody, that everyone can do, and therefore does not change anything. I don’t think I heard anybody talking about it the next day. I didn’t have any friends email me or call me to say “oh my god, how awesome was earth hour last week? I really feel energized to do something about climate change.” I don’t know about any shifts in policy that occurred as a result.
All lot of time, energy, money, and viral marketing went to into the push for “awareness’ and my conclusion is that awareness is not always all that it is made out to be. But maybe I am just being a cynic.