Solving the World's Problems by the Hour

We certainly do live in convenient times. With remote's for our televisions, microwaves for our cooking and the internet for our information, getting things done has never been so easy. So too it seems for our participation in important social issues with the conclusion of last nights "earth hour".

I've written previously about what I call the "green hypocrisy" that seems to be running rampant these days, and I guess this is somewhat of an extension on that idea. Last night's earth hour has been receiving a few mild rumblings about its relevance to the real issue of global warming, a few digs in the ribs about whether the activity of turning some lights off for an hour really has any siginificant impact on the problem at all. The defence has been that the event is a "symbolic gesture" to put the issue into peoples minds. I find this concept of symbolic gesture's rather intriguing.

It seems to me that if you don't want to put your heart into something and accept the true sacrifice that is required, the next best thing to do is make a symbolic gesture as a demonstration of your support for an issue. These are great, because you don't really have to do anything particularly difficult, and you can accept all the kudo's. I was speaking to someone yesterday who was going to be attending an earth hour dinner party and when I asked how he was going to be travelling to the event he answered "driving my car there ofcourse". This is a clear indication of a person who has no real understanding of the issue, but wants to jump on the bandwagon and wave the fashionable flag.

I always have felt symbolic gestures are a dangerous thing. You either support an issue by adjusting your lifestyle to accommodate it, or you do not. Taking this easy option to be part of the "in" crowd is a perversion of what the problem is all about, and the message is as lost as your breadknife at a dinner party in darkness.

Todays shout out goes to the true conservationists. These people are focused on finding real solutions to the real problems.

Todays shout down goes to earth hour. A fine example of popular nonsense.

"The lightbulb in our heads", by Dan the VespaMan.

The lights went out last night
And we were in the dark,
But when they came back on
It seemed we had missed our mark.

I have no doubt we need to change
The world cannot handle our gas,
But to keep dodging the point like this
Well, it's just crass !