Earth Hour: Turn your brain off for 60 mins!

I was going to write a Twitter or Facebook quip about earth hour, but I just couldn't fit everything in. So here comes a blog post.

First, not enough people are thinking critically about this. Most people acknowledge that Earth Hour does nothing to conserve energy. Even Edward Norton, the 'US Ambassador' for EA acknowledged this on Larry King tonight.

Then, I'm watching more of Larry King and there is a PSA for Earth Hour. There we have Alanis Morissette ON A PLANE advertising what you need to do for earth hour. wow.

And lastly we have the guy who leads the WWF, who is pushing all these environmental actions, with little scientific research to back it up. None of these three people are scientists, and none of them acknowledge the debate regarding climate change. There is ALWAYS a debate, and making assumptions like they do is similar to 'soft fascism' (This article is definitely libertarian/free market biased, however it makes some good points.)

And all this boils down to Penn and Teller's episode on 'Environmental Hysteria' ... And if you watch it, you'll notice all these 'environmental followers' sign a petition to ban water. Thats right, water.

Climate change is real, no doubt about that. But the way environmentalists are approaching its solution are based on politics, not science. Many advocate turning back the clock on the industrial revolution, or charging for carbon credits, which ultimately harms the poor and middle class. Technology and Science is going to be what gets us out of this. Better solar and wind energy plants, better battery technology, and better transportation technology. The government needs to invest and support companies and universities, not taxing John doe and Corp X. There is a HUGE market for electric cars, and sustainable power, when the technology is good enough to compete. This will happen, I think sooner than later. Until then, if you want to live in an unpowered cave, or drive veggie cars, or spend a whole bunch of money on solar power and make your house energy efficient, kudos. Hybrids don't count ;-)

Think about it this way: Babies are bad for the environment. And if you look at the Earth Hour movement stats, it'd take just one person to not have an extra kid (living in an industrialized nation) to do the same as Earth Hour. Perhaps people should reduce having kids to one or two. That would be more environmentally friendly than almost any other suggestion offered out there.

Earth Hour is about being smug at best, and trying to push dubious science as law at worse. So smarten up and don't follow blindly. Turn your lights on for Earth Hour!

This youtube video pretty much sums up my view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifci-W2Cs1o