Legacy of Earth Hour could quickly fade
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by Chris Simon

Let's hope the goals of Earth Hour are maintained long after Saturday.

On March 29, between 8 and 9 p.m., millions of people across the world are expected to participate in Earth Hour. The event, which began in Sydney, Australia last year, aims to raise awareness of energy conservation and reduce greenhouse gases, by asking people to turn off all non-essential lighting and electronic equipment.

Several local municipalities, including the Town of Innisfil, have already committed to participate in the one hour event, by dimming lighting in their administration buildings. Innisfil will also encourage residents to participate, by posting a message on the town website.

And while there's plenty of initial enthusiasm for this event, it'll be interesting to see if that momentum carries over into a sustainable change of lifestyle for citizens of the global community. All too often, big events can spur people into taking an interest in global causes. However, once that big event is over, attention from the cause wanes.

There are several examples of this in recent history. In 1985, an estimated 1.5 billion people in 100 countries watched Live Aid, a multivenue rock concert that was used to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia. Although several hundred million dollars was believed to have been raised through the concert series, much of that funding was mismanaged by the Ethiopian government. Ethiopia is still one of the poorest countries on Earth, but neither the media nor most of the global community have paid much attention.

Three years ago, several different venues across the world held a string of concerts called Live 8. The concerts were supposed to raise awareness of global poverty, and pressure the G8 nations to increase funding to third world nations. The concerts, unlike Live Aid, were not used as fundraisers. Instead, they were solely supposed to shed light on the Global Call for Action Against Poverty.

According to Wikipedia, a report issued in 2006 has suggested that G8 countries have failed to live up to funding obligations made in 2005. The United States, for example, has increased its development assistance pledges, but often fails to meet them. And when is the last time there was serious public discussion on the issue of world poverty by national leaders?

Although Earth Hour is a noble cause, history tends to repeat itself. Perhaps people need to switch focus. It's easy to switch off the lights for one hour a year, but a sustained lifestyle change should be the focus. Governments should work harder to encourage their constituents to conserve energy, by offering incentive programs for energy efficiency. Ontario has already taken some steps towards this, but real change might occur if they can make their residents understand the cost benefits of energy conservation. Scientists are still debating the causes of global warming, so energy conservation should be focused on other, more reliable positive impacts than greenhouse gas emissions.

Basically, saving people hundreds or even thousands of dollars each year will help improve living standards, while conserved energy can be exported to people in the developing world. A reduction in energy usage would also lessen the strain on North American energy grids, reducing the likelihood of blackouts.

Both governments and their people need to find ways of overcoming the mental block and excitement of a large-scale event, and prevent this from becoming another well-intentioned afterthought.