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Earth Hour, the annual event that turns off lights as a statement for cleaner energy, marks its fifth year this Saturday. But a free-market think tank is trying to get some traction with its alternative: the Human Achievement Hour, when people are encouraged to leave lights on to show their appreciation for inventions "and the recognition that future solutions require individual freedom not government coercion." ... In the other corner is the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which isn't expecting to match Earth Hour's reach but aims to make a point when they battle from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. this Saturday...

So last Saturday, Earth Hour took place- that mystical event when cities around the world pledge to turn off the power, and go dark for an hour. It began in Australia in 2007, and has since spread like a pimply rash to more than 130 countries. But If you missed it, it’s not your fault. I totally drank my way through it – and the only thing I had off were my pants. And now, after five years, some commentators are pronouncing the fad over, which suggest we’re all uncaring jerks. Which I know I am anyway.

The money-no-object Metropolitan Police had helicopters whirring non-stop over Central London during today’s mass hallucination (they’re still overhead as I write), but, as usual, not a lot of competent policing on the ground. As is their wont, they did little to prevent property damage – or the general intimidation of visitors to the capital by so-called “anarchists” (an odd term for pro-government welfare-funded thugs).

Earth Hour labelled a waste of time Updated Sat Mar 26, 2011 1:05pm AEDT The chairman of Western Australia's largest sustainability program says Earth Hour is tokenistic and a waste of time. Since 2007, the Earth Hour campaign has been encouraging people to turn off their lights simultaneously for one hour to show their support for making a stand against climate change. Last year, more than 200 million people in 128 countries participated in the event. John Carlson, from the not-for-profit initiative Days of Change, says the event gives people a false sense of achievement. "In one hour you can't...

The Las Vegas Strip is the best place to do a lot of things. It’s arguably the worst place in the world to stargaze. On Saturday night at 8:30, that will change for an hour. Lights around the world will be darkened for Earth Hour 2011. It’s an event designed to heighten environmental awareness. It’s a single hour of a single day, once a year. “Earth Hour is a great symbolic gesture,” explains Scott Rutledge, executive director of the Nevada Conservation League. “For people to see the lights go off on the Strip, it’s quite a spectacle. But if they...

In 2009 I was asked by a journalist for my thoughts on the importance of Earth Hour. Here is my response. I abhor Earth Hour. Abundant, cheap electricity has been the greatest source of human liberation in the 20th century. Every material social advance in the 20th century depended on the proliferation of inexpensive and reliable electricity. Giving women the freedom to work outside the home depended on the availability of electrical appliances that free up time from domestic chores. Getting children out of menial labour and into schools depended on the same thing, as well as the ability to...

Earth Hour: A Dissent Ross McKitrick In 2009 I was asked by a journalist for my thoughts on the importance of Earth Hour. Here is my response. I abhor Earth Hour. Abundant, cheap electricity has been the greatest source of human liberation in the 20th century. Every material social advance in the 20th century depended on the proliferation of inexpensive and reliable electricity. Giving women the freedom to work outside the home depended on the availability of electrical appliances that free up time from domestic chores. Getting children out of menial labour and into schools depended on the same thing,...

It’s unclear how many GTA homes will partake in turning off their lights to honour Earth Hour Saturday. But don’t count in the Menzies in the collective, self-imposed blackout! “We will not be in the dark,” journalist and conservative commentator David Menzies said Thursday. Instead, what you will find is a giant beacon in the sky emanating from his Richmond Hill street between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. “While everybody else has their lights off I will have every light in my house on,” said Menzies, as he prepared for his second installment in mocking the “phony” Earth Hour movement. He’s...

AS well-intentioned gestures go, Earth Hour is hard to beat. At 8.30pm on Saturday, March 27, nearly a billion people in more than 120 countries demonstrated their desire to do something about global warming by switching off their lights for an hour. Earth Hour is surely one of the most successful publicity stunts to be dreamed up. First organised in Sydney in 2007 by the local chapter of the WWF, its popularity and the level of participation that generates has exploded in recent years, to the point that there is barely a corner of the earth that the campaign hasn't...

As many of you know Saturday night from 8:30-9:30 was “Earth Hour,” in which we were asked to turn off lights and electronic devices in order to “live naturally.” Here’s an excerpt from the website www.earthhour.org: Earth Hour 2010 takes place on Saturday 27 March at 8.30pm (local time) and is a global call to action to every individual, every business and every community throughout the world. It is a call to stand up, to take responsibility, to get involved and lead the way towards a sustainable future. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Europe to Asia to the Americas will...

For years, I’ve heard supposed libertarians pontificating about low-taxes, on the one hand, while supporting welfare-dependent drug addicts, on the other. Which begs the question: Are the media’s favourite libertarian thinkers, Alzheimer’s victims or fifth columnists? Take Reason magazine – and let’s revisit 2008. Before the last election, Peter Bagge a Reason contributing editor was asked which way he was swinging. The libertarian-minded elitist pontificated: If the polls in my home state are close: Obama (McCain is simply too incompetent these days to be president). If not, I’ll make a protest vote for Barr. And how did that work out?...

Jakarta’s main thoroughfares, offices, public buildings and residences generally kept their electricity on, ignoring the call to switch off power between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. to mark global Earth Hour on Saturday night. Despite expectations of increased participation from building managers and households for the 2010 Earth Hour, buildings and billboard lights along Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin remained brightly lit. The landscape of the city was as bright as usual, with hotels, apartments, high-rise buildings, and houses of worship carrying on as usual. Only a few buildings switched off their lights, including the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry...

<p>In celebration of electricity and how much everyone appreciates this marvelous invention, cities across the world have been turning off their lights for one hour starting at 8:30 pm tonight (check your local TV listings). Clutching candles as the only means of light, earthlings learn to appreciate the only source of light before the invention of electric light. The cost to commerce and personal income from the hour long event can be fully appreciated in the video below when the electricity goes off.</p>

As many of you know Saturday night from 8:30-9:30 was “Earth Hour,” in which we were asked to turn off lights and electronic devices in order to “live naturally.” Here’s an excerpt from the website www.earthhour.org: Earth Hour 2010 takes place on Saturday 27 March at 8.30pm (local time) and is a global call to action to every individual, every business and every community throughout the world. It is a call to stand up, to take responsibility, to get involved and lead the way towards a sustainable future. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Europe to Asia to the Americas will...

Once again, a useless gesture carries more weight, gets more publicity, and garners more enthusiasm and adulation than the actual daily practicing of what is being preached for an hour. In other words, style over substance.

LONDON - Europe's best known landmarks — including the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and Rome's Colosseum — fell dark Saturday, following Sydney's Opera House and Beijing's Forbidden City in joining a global climate change protest, as lights were switched off across the world to mark the Earth Hour event. In the United States, the lights went out at the Empire State Building in New York, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and the Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta, among many other sites in the Eastern time zone.

Sorry for the vanity post, but please join me in turning every light on in your house, your neighborhood, your out houses or whatever. What better way to celebrate EARTH HOUR? The "progressives" would love us to live in their 12th century vision of Utopia, let's show them what we think. Let's vow to make next year one these communist, Marxist, pseudo environmentalist will never forget. Drill, baby, Drill but in the meantime burn a few bucks to annoy them!

Earth Hour Alert: at 8:30 PM (your time) turn on ALL your lights. In honor of Earth Hour, I am asking All willing Freepers to turn on All your lights, turn up your heat and turn on the a/c to cool it down, due a few loads of wash, start up every computer, make a few loaves of bread in the bread machine...if you have one, put a spot light in your yard. It is my understanding that the success or lack of it will be measured by how much electric wattage was used in that hour and satellite pictures...

Between the hours of 8:30 PM and 9:30 PM, I will be observing Earth Hour in a Conservative fashion that would make Thomas Edison smile with excitement and wonderment. In short, all the lights that are never on during the Night; will be bright and shining tonight! Call it a peasants revolt, because I refuse to submit to Al Gore proposals.

"The 'red hour' marked the beginning of the festival on Beta III, during the governance of Landru. ("The Return of the Archons")" http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Red_hour ____________________________________ "The U.S.S. Enterprise is investigating Beta III, where the U.S.S. Archon disappeared over 100 years before. When the landing party exhibits strange behavior, Kirk sends another party down to investigate. They find the culture on Beta III is quiescent, with no creative tendencies. The entire culture is controlled by a group of 'lawgivers' known as "The Body" which is, in turn, controlled by the omniscient Landru. The inhabitants change from normal, peaceful people to a violent...

Tonight at 8:30PM (irrespective of time zones) you can celebrate Earth Hour with occultists, elitists, envirofascists, and the easily-led around the world by turning off all your lights for one hour. This will, logically enough, help us to "save" the Earth from the evil capitalists, earth destroyers, and, one presumes, possibly even from former president George Bush. Of course we should all want to do our part. It's the right thing to do. The net result of attaching an enviro-morality to silly acts like turning off your lights for an hour of group-think and meditation may not be obvious to...

GOODFIELD — At 8:29 p.m. Saturday, Leslie Friederich and her sons Tristan, 9, and Luka, 7, plan to run around the boys' grandma's house turning off all the lights. They'll then crank up the flashlights and light some candles, and the family will play board games together for about an hour. The Friederich family is one of millions of families around the world expected to turn off lights from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday central time for the third annual Earth Hour. Earth Hour is a global campaign of the World Wildlife Fund and is sponsored in Illinois by ComEd....

Tonight, at the behest of several well-known Green Messiahs such as nutjob David Suzuki and with the encouragement of the public relations departments of multinational corporations, humans all across the world will get in touch with their inner Gore and soothe their eco-guilt by finally solving the climate change problem… …by turning off lights?

he Competitive Enterprise Institute, a leading free-market think tank, will celebrate the Second Annual “Human Achievement Hour” between 8:30pm and 9:30pm on Saturday, March 27, 2010. The one-hour celebration coincides with “Earth Hour,” an hour in which governments, individuals, and corporations will dim or shut off lights to symbolically renounce the environmental impacts of modern technology. “Earth Hour’s creators suggest that human inventions and technology are a problem, but we see the ability to create and innovate as the ultimate resource,” says Human Achievement Hour founder and CEI Policy Analyst Michelle Minton. “Environmental challenges will not be solved by turning...

If you appreciate the benefits of civilization: cars, houses, computers, modern healthcare, etc. celebrate with us by turning on your porch light March 27 2010 8:30 PM Local Time.Young folks especially should appreciate what powers their cellphones and IPods and Facebook. Don't take it for granted! So tonight at 8:30, turn on your porch light!

While the World Wildlife Fund is encouraging everyone all over the planet to shut off their lights and anything else running on electricity at 8 P.M. tonight to celebrate "Earth Hour," the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington D.C. based think tank, is telling everyone to turn everything on at that time instead and celebrate "Human Achievement Hour."

We all understand that Earth Hour is basically just symbolic, but when the facts are understood, even that symbolism becomes almost laughable. We’ll hear wild claims about how much CO2 will be saved with the lights going out for that one hour. However, it is all theoretical, because nothing is actually ‘saved’ at all. Power Plants just do not stop providing their power to the grids for that one hour, so they just keep humming along as they always have. This is the reality of what does happen for that one hour. Oh! And if you have turned your household...

As the worshipers of mother earth gear up to participate in one of their most sacred rituals, it’s worth noting how this like so many other liberal causes is pure symbolism with very little substance. Perhaps it makes a lot of people feel good, but it doesn’t actuality DO a lot of good. The wise and folks who organize this event have chosen an interesting time for it. It takes place at 8:30 PM local time in each time zone around the globe. Presumably the time was set to take place when it’s dark so liberals everywhere can look out...

Cambridge will turn off all nonessential lights in municipal buildings for one hour Saturday, starting at 8:30 p.m., in support of Earth Hour. Turning out the lights for Earth Hour is intended to serve as a call for action on climate change and to symbolize a positive impact can be made by working together. The city will turn out non-essential lights for one hour, and residents are encouraged to do the same Saturday at 8:30 p.m. This year is the third year of the Earth Hour event which attracted more than 80 million participants in the U.S. last year, and...

Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Dining Services Earth Hour Event: On Saturday, March 27, at 8:30 p.m. Shafer Court Dining Center and Jonah’s will take part in Earth Hour — the world’s largest climate change event. By simply turning out all nonessential lighting for one hour, Dining Services will join tens of millions of concerned citizens through...out the world in calling for action to save the planet. The locations will remain open, but with limited lighting during this hour. For more information about the VCU event, contact tmhighsmith@vcu.edu.

I was just thinking about my plan to turn on all the lights and fans at 8:30 EDT this Saturday to commemorate "Earth Hour". The plan would be to use more energy than a moonbat household and offset...their sacrifice!

(There are many candlelit activities to do with family or friends when you turn off the lights for an hour to raise awareness about climate change.) Q: Earth Hour is coming up on March 27 and I, for one, am excited to get in on the action and turn off my lights. One question though – what the heck am I supposed to do in the dark for a whole hour?A: You’ve come to the right place, my friend. For those of you who don’t know, the World Wildlife Fund started Earth Hour three years ago, asking people to turn...

Tom Brady, of the New England Patriots, tells us all to turn out our lights for one hour on March 27th to save the world.

Freedom lovers the world over have an opportunity to shine a cleansing light on one of the Global Warming Movement’s biggest hypocritical events: Earth Hour. Earth Hour, which began back in 2007, calls for people to plunge the world into darkness and spread the lie of man made Global Warming. This year Global warming activists, sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) are once again calling for the dark for for a March 27 “Earth Hour”. Desperate now that polls show people see man made global warming as a scam, Earth Hour promoters are telling people “lights off” “to demand...

(On March 27, cities around the world will turn out their lights for 60 minutes.) Environmentalists: Prepare to turn out your lights. Plans for Earth Hour 2010 are officially underway — and the 60 minutes are expected to be darker than ever! World Wildlife Fund’s Earth Hour is a now a 3-year-old annual event when everyone is encouraged to turn off their lights for an hour — saving some electric energy in the short term while hopefully encouraging all to ponder and act on environmental issues in the long term. In 2010, Earth Hour will be happening from 8:30 p.m.–9:30...

You may not have been aware of this, but on Saturday you were supposed to sit around in the dark for sixty minutes, starting at 8:30 PM, in order to celebrate "Earth Hour." Now, you may be wondering: what exactly would that accomplish? I'm not entirely sure what the answer to that question is supposed to be, but I think the general theory was that the darkness was going to inspire legions of dirt faeries to fly in, sprinkle magic Pixie dust everywhere, and that was supposed to cool the earth off -- or something. I don't even think the...

A Mississauga family who tried to light a candle for Earth Hour nearly burned their Meadowvale townhouse down. Afshan Khalid, 46, said her 8-year-old daughter tried to light a candle before Earth Hour started at 8:30 p.m. Saturday. “She was lighting up the candle and we thought it didn’t light up or the match fell somewhere that we didn’t notice and then we left,” said Ms. Khalid. The family was going to see friends and when getting ready, they lighted scented candles so they could see. While they were gone, Ms. Khalid’s son Omar, 19, came home at 9:30 with...

A Mississauga family who tried to light a candle for Earth Hour nearly burned their Meadowvale townhouse down. Afshan Khalid, 46, said her 8-year-old daughter tried to light a candle before Earth Hour started at 8:30 p.m. Saturday. “She was lighting up the candle and we thought it didn’t light up or the match fell somewhere that we didn’t notice and then we left,” said Ms. Khalid. The family was going to see friends and when getting ready, they lighted scented candles so they could see.

PASADENA, CA - Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory released data today indicating an unmistakable cooling trend during 'Earth Hour'. The event, in which citizens voluntarily shut off unnecessary lights and appliances for one hour, was held to raise awareness of global climate change. Scientists say the event was so successful that temperatures were noticeably cooler during the event than even a mere six hours before.

Do as I say, not as I do? Seems like former Vice-President Al Gore may be embracing that motto as evidenced Saturday night with the environmentalist's failure to turn off the lights of his Nashville home for “Earth Hour.”

I’m madder than a hippie chick who’s run out of hemp tampons! Did you know Al Bore left his lights on during that stupid Earth Hour on Saturday night? It’s true: over at his billion square foot mansion, Crazy Al was running up his electric bill when he was telling the rest of us to sit in the dark like cavemen! I’m guessing the light was from Al Gore’s open fridge!

A severe power blackout brought chaos to downtown Sydney on Monday afternoon, causing peak-hour traffic jams as street signals failed and leaving workers stranded in lifts as they tried to make their way home. Failures at four high-voltage power cables virtually paralyzed Australia's biggest city, with the Sydney Harbor tunnel partially closed to traffic and the Sydney Opera House forced to cancel all performances for the evening, local media said. Office towers lost all power, paralyzing some elevators, at around 4:45 pm local time (0545 GMT). Up to 70,000 homes and businesses, including some inner suburbs, were blacked out, said...

Al Gore Leaves The Light On For Ya By Kleinheider Posted on March 29, 2009 at 12:00 pm Even during Earth Hour. President of the Tennessee Center For Policy Research Drew Johnson takes a Saturday drive by Al Gore’s during the time most environmentalists went dark: I pulled up to Al’s house, located in the posh Belle Meade section of Nashville, at 8:48pm – right in the middle of Earth Hour. I found that the main spotlights that usually illuminate his 9,000 square foot mansion were dark, but several of the lights inside the house were on. In fact, most...

(Big snip) Another question, do events like this do more harm than good in trying to get normal, ordinary Joe or Jane to think a little more like these people? Or is getting the idea out to respect and love "Mother Earth" more important than how one comes across trying to get the idea out in public? For example, does Al Gore and his thoughts do more harm or good in the fight against global warming?

The kicker, though, were the dozen or so floodlights grandly highlighting several trees and illuminating the driveway entrance of Gore’s mansion.Hypocritical "Earth Hour" at Al Gore's House Drew Johnson, President of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, decided to spend "Earth Hour" by visiting the home of Al Gore, The Grand Poobah of the Church of the Global Warming Moonbat and what he found was that hypocritical Gore was his carbon footprint generating self during earth hour. Johnson gave me permission to reprint this note from his face book page which describes his little trip to moonbat land: I shit...

Even during Earth Hour. President of the Tennessee Center For Policy Research Drew Johnson takes a Saturday drive by Al Gore’s during the time most environmentalists went dark:

For environmental activists, the message was clear: Earth Hour was a huge success. Now they say nations have a mandate to tackle climate change. "The world said yes to climate action, now governments must follow," the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said Sunday, a day after hundreds of millions of people worldwide followed its call to turn off lights for a full hour. --snip-- The United Nations' top climate official, Yvo de Boer, called the event a clear sign that the world wants negotiators seeking a climate change agreement to set an ambitious course to fight global warming. Talks in Bonn...

We're nearly 24 hours out of Earth Hour and the media are already proclaiming it a success as Michael Bates pointed out for NewsBusters in a blog post earlier today. However one prominent global warming alarmist reportedly didn't fully participate in the Earth Hour festivities. According to Drew Johnson, president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, global warming activist and former Vice President Al Gore left his lights for the hyped Earth Hour. ...more...

Was Earth Hour a bust? So it appeared in the San Fernando Valley of California, as demographically close to Middle America as anywhere. I stood on my balcony before the witching hour of 8:30 p.m., overlooking a vast landscape of twinkling lights, illuminated apartment buildings, pizza parlors, supermarkets and suburban bungalows. I waited. Even hoped. The minutes ticked by. I squinted. Could i even see a single light winking off in the distance? Nope.

I drafted up a brief letter-to-the-editor to my local liberal rag re: Earth Hour, and before I email it I wanted you, my fellow freepers, to tell me what you think, and suggest any additional verbiage. Letter To the Editor:Well, another Earth-Hour has come and gone. And I was thinking, since every time we humans exhale, we release CO2 into the atmosphere, which we all "know" is causing global warming, what about having an "Earth Minute". At a designated time each year for one minute, everyone on the planet will hold their breath in a gesture of ecological unity. Of...