Get the Floodlights Ready: Earth Hour is Upon Us

As moonbats around the globe prepare to plunge themselves into darkness, we instead urge everyone to celebrate technological innovation, as well as electricity, by turning on all their lights tomorrow night to counteract the idiocy known as Earth Hour.

One of the great intellectual conflicts of the early part of the 21st century concerns the role of man here on planet Earth. Some, like the followers of Stanford University biologist Paul Ehrlich--author of The Population Bomb--hold that mankind’s role boils down to that of exploiter of the Earth’s resources and despoiler of its natural beauty.

This view, widely accepted in western political, cultural, and academic circles, is most commonly expressed by the so-called environmental movement in proposals that are antitechnology, antiprogress and, if fully implemented, will lead to a reduced standard of living in the developed world.

It is an antihuman, antihumanist view, one that decries human achievement rather than celebrating it. And those who believe this way are once again calling on people to turn off their lights in observance of “Earth Hour” on March 26.

It’s a once a year event, one the so-called environmental community regards as a symbolic act urging businesses, individuals and lawmakers to take action in support of efforts to combat global warming, err, climate change.

The proponents of “Earth Hour,” the Competitive Enterprise Institute says, want “laws and sanctions to prevent individuals from freely using earth’s resources.” But, because the folks at CEI believe human progress and technological innovation have made life better, they are encouraging everyone to mark March 26 as “Human Achievement Hour.”

“The result of the environmental movement is a limitation on our ability to create the future wave of technologies and a hindrance on our ability to produce the current products that benefit or everyday lives.”

“You can sit in the dark and join them or you can join people around the world who plan to leave their lights on, affirming their appreciation for human inventions like electricity, indoor plumbing, mass food production, heat, transportation, and computers,” CEI says, asking people to--through their actions--cast a vote “against environmental alarmism” and in favor of “human achievement.”

Meanwhile, Fergie, Britney Spears and Lady Gaga all promise to go dark for an hour. We suggest they go dark permanently. Would anyone really miss them?

In the UK, they're celebrating a return to the Stone Age, calling it “an inspiring display of international commitment”. Maybe they should turn off the alarms to Buckingham Palace while they're at it, just so they don't offend any potential thieves.

Over on Twitter they're suggesting everyone go dark, but to keep tweeting, which seems to defeat the purpose.

"Support Earth Hour. It's not for the record, but an action to show that we still care and love our vulnerable planet," "Reminder: Tomorrow - Saturday 26 March - is Earth Hour. It starts at 8.30pm," "Apparently during Earth Hour Amish people celebrate by turning all the lights on..." So do climate change skeptics!" and "I will not celebrate Earth Hour.... Its just for those who need to be reminded that we need to take care of our mother nature..." tweet people using the "Earth Hour" trend.

I think I'll double up on my tweets during this time, just to annoy people.

In case you weren't aware, MySpace is still around, and over there smoking hot5 Victoria's Secret babe and part-time Miranda Kerr is reminding us to save the planet or something. As Laura Ingraham might say, just shut up and show us the lingerie.

Even the diminutive celebrities are getting in on the act.

“Earth Hour brings attention to the need for environmental action. I believe that each one of us has the power to do more, especially in areas such as the conservation of our planet’s finite resources. I will go beyond the hour this year by replacing all the light bulbs in my home with energy efficient lighting. Make your footprint on this planet as small as mine,” Troyer said.

Troyer joins present and previous ambassadors for Earth Hour including: The Most Reverend Archbishop Desmond Tutu, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, actress Cate Blanchett, Brazilian supermodel Giselle Bundchen, singer Tom Jones, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Chinese Actress Li Bingbing, model Miranda Kerr, Pakistan’s cricket legend Wasim Akram, actor Edward Norton, DJ Ferry Corsten, and international footballer Franceso Totti.

I hope Giselle Bundchen and her boytoy have enough staff ready to power down their mega-mansion.

The Perils of Earth Hour: Flaming Cats

Another insipid Earth Hour came and went last Saturday and reports are now coming in showing how dangerous it can be to voluntarily leave yourself in the dark.

The occasion: Earth Hour.

The lights: Off.

The cat: On fire.

A romantic, candlelight dinner in the B.C. environment minister’s house got some unexpected fireworks on Saturday while he and his wife celebrated Earth Hour.

“Suddenly, there was a poof of smoke,” Barry Penner said Tuesday.

He looked over to see that Ranger, the family’s orange-coloured cat, had caught fire while brushing past a candle.

The inquisitive cat, 5, apparently wanted to get in on what was supposed to have been an Earth Hour tete-a-tete for Penner and his wife Daris LaPointe.

The couple rushed to extinguish their pet, but by the time they reached his side, the flames were out, leaving Ranger’s fur singed on one side.

“He looked somewhat disgruntled,” said Penner. “He looked taken aback but he didn’t look afraid. He looked more irritated than anything.”

Candles had been lit around the kitchen and the dining room, as well as on counters and on the table, Penner said.

“This was something new and so he wanted to get a closer look at the candle. He likes to rub against things,” he said.

Within seconds of his brush with destiny, Ranger was demanding rubs, Penner said. The environment minister reported Tuesday Ranger is completely fine, although petting him makes your hand smell like smoke, and his singed fur is curled up, frizzy and brittle.

Left with a house smelling like burnt cat hair left them with a quandary. How to get rid of it?

“We thought about using the fan but we couldn’t do it,” said Penner. They opted instead to open windows to air out the house without using any electricity.

Canada's really in the best of hands.

H/T Tim Blair, who chronicles other moonbat hilarity from up north.

Friendly Reminder: Turn On All Your Lights at 8:30 Saturday Night

Combat the Earth Hour moonbattery by turning on all your lights tomorrow night. Also, if you have any heavy equipment, it may be a good time to see if they're still operating properly. All home appliances should be tested at that time, turn on the washing machine and make sure all your television sets are on. Maybe use the DVD player while you're at it.

Let's see a surge while these clowns are in the dark.

The countdown to Earth Hour is on. This weekend, on Saturday March 27, everyone world-wide is being asked to shut off the lights for one hour at 8:30 p.m. local time, wherever they may be. We're talking homes, businesses and government agencies all around the world. It's part of an eco-conscious effort to draw awareness to climate-change by halting energy consumption for one hour.

Last year, the lights went out at the Empire State Building, the Sydney Opera House and even the Eiffel Tower! This year organizers expect 115 countries to participate. Here in the U.S., the lights will dim at Washington D.C.'s National Cathedral, the Seattle Space Needle and even on the perpetually light-up Las Vegas Strip. California joins 25 other states nationwide as an official "Earth Hour State" because of a commitment to turn off the lights at the state capitol building in Sacramento. Locally, the Golden Gate Bridge will go dark as well.

In this case, it's a good thing to be "in the dark!"

You suppose all those gated-community liberals will be turning off the alarms that keep them safe from the great unwashed?

The commenters here have some good suggestions.

If these aren't reasons sufficient enough, do it to annoy Tom Brady.



Update: Celebrate Human Achievement Hour!

Earth Hour Idiocy: Maybe the UN Should Go Dark Permanently

Here we go with the feel-good nonsense known as Earth Hour, where cities and groups around the world go dark for an hour in a symbolic gesture to show how morally superior they are while trying to foist "climate change" restrictions on us.

For one hour on Saturday evening, 8:30 to 9:30 p.m., exterior lights will shut off at a score of New York City landmarks, including the Empire State Building, the New York Public Library, the United Nations headquarters, City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge. But New Yorkers need not worry — we hope — about a recurrence of the citywide blackouts of 1965, 1977 and 2003.

The lights are being shut off intentionally as part of a worldwide observance of Earth Hour, an event that began in 2007 in Sydney and was organized by the Australia chapter of the World Wildlife Fund.

As our colleagues at the Green Inc. blog noted earlier this week, the event will start in Fiji and then roll around the globe by time zone throughout the day. Cities slated to participate include Cape Town, Chicago, Copenhagen, Dubai, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Las Vegas, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Manila, Mexico City, Moscow, Nashville, Oslo, Rome, San Francisco, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto and Warsaw.

“This will be a pivotal year in the future of our planet as we look to Congress, President Obama and global leaders to take immediate and decisive action on climate change,” Carter Roberts, chief executive of the World Wildlife Fund, said in a statement. “Having New York City go dark for Earth Hour will send a powerful message to the world that the U.S. is ready to assume a leadership position in solving one of the most serious challenges facing our planet today. By turning out the lights, the people of New York City will be casting a vote in support of the future of the Earth.”

Of course in the minds of these twits, if you don't play along with this nonsense, you don't care about the Earth. The horrors!

My question is why just an hour? If these people are so intent on saving the planet, why not two hours? Ten hours? The whole day? How about just turning back the clock a couple centuries and go totally dark and live by candlelight?

Will Carter Roberts really be in the dark for an hour, or will he be sitting around checking his BlackBerry and texting his moonbat friends while patting himself on the back?

Well, I'm not going to play along. As I sit here in a hotel in an undisclosed location, I just turned on all the lights and turned the thermostat in my room to an environmentally damaging 62 degrees.

Even the Hollywood boobs are getting in on the action.

The actor Edward Norton is the official ambassador for Earth Hour 2009.

Maybe Ed can show us his electric bill so we can see how much energy he's consuming.

Considering the UN is partaking in this, I have a suggestion for them: Turn off the lights permanently and leave New York. You'll save a lot of energy and we'll be free of an adundance of hot air from all the enemies of America.

Update: Heh.

Via Ace's headlines.

North Korea Celebrates Earth Hour

Moonbats worldwide proudly plunged themselves into darkness tonight in some weird homage to the environment.

Here's a look at festivities in North Korea.


As you can observe, it's not much difference from this satellite shot of the Communist hellhole.


H/T to pegcity at LGF for the idea.

'It's Largely a Symbolic Event'

Symbolism means everything to the dim bulbs who apparently enjoy sitting in the dark.

The actual impact of turning off lights for one hour is minimal, and some skeptics question the message. But promoters say the idea is to get people talking about further ways they can contribute, and to spur government action through grassroots activity.

"It's largely a symbolic event," acknowledges Leslie Aun, a WWF spokeswoman. "But symbols are powerful things.... It provides people with an opportunity to say something about climate change."

How stupid. Not to mention it has little impact.

Some are skeptical about promoting individual impact. At last year's Sydney Earth Hour, about half of residents turned out lights, but electricity use decreased by only about 2 percent, says David Solomon, a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago. The event showed "that household light use just isn't a large component of total electricity use," he says.

The Google nitwits, who ignored Easter, are all on board.

These people are so full of themselves, thinking they can actually control the climate.

Pathetic.

"This provides an extraordinary symbol and an indication that we can be part of the solution" to global warming, Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett told Sky News television, standing across the harbor from the dark silhouette of the Opera House.

Garrett said government offices and national monuments around the country participated in Earth Hour.

"We're not only talking the talk, we're walking the walk," he said as the hour ended. "Whatever your view is about the magnitude of the problem ... we can save money by using energy wisely and efficiently, and that gives us the added bonus of reduced greenhouse gas emissions."

Then why not just eschew electricity entirely?

I think when the hour arrives tonight, I'll turn on every light in the house and the outdoor floodlights. Just knowing I'll be pissing off some nitwit will make it all worth it.

Lawhawk is also tired of the preaching.

Fight Idiocy: Turn On All Your Lights

Any time you see the buzzwords like "raise awareness" and "climate change," then you know it's time to counter whatever idiocy these pinheads have planned.

As many as 30 million people are tipped to switch off lights and televisions around the world to help fight climate change with 24 cities joining Earth Hour on March 29, environment group WWF said on Wednesday.

Following last year's Earth Hour in Australia, where 2.2 million Sydneysiders powered-down for an hour, cities including Atlanta, San Francisco, Bangkok, Ottawa, Dublin, Vancouver, Montreal and Phoenix have also signed on, WWF said.

They joined Copenhagen and Aarhus, Manila, Fiji's capital Suva, Chicago, Tel Aviv, Christchurch, Toronto, Odense and Aalborg, as well as major Australian cities including Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and the national capital Canberra.

"If we see the same participation levels around the globe that we did in Sydney, then we can anticipate more than 30 million people involved," said Andy Ridley, Earth Hour's executive director.

Earth Hour asks residents in participating cities to switch off lights and non-essential electrical items for one hour at 8 p.m. to raise awareness of carbon emissions that scientists blame for causing global warming.

Yawn.

These people are so tedious.

This year, Ridley said, other iconic buildings to be plunged into darkness would include San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, Chicago's Sears Tower and Soldier Field Stadium football ground, as well as the 553-metre (1,815 ft) CN Tower in Toronto.

"Climate change is a truly global issue and people around the world are demanding action," he said.

No, morons like Ridley are demanding action. The rest of us would like to be left alone to enjoy our lives, thank you very much.