Lighting Out for the Territory

Steyn On-line ^ | March 30, 2019 | Mark Steyn

[Twotone]

My book Lights Out takes its title from a famous observation by Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign Secretary, as he looked out of his window at London at dusk on the eve of the Great War:

The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.

Lights Out is about free speech (you can order personally autographed copies here), and thus relevant to my seven-year battle against the Big Climate enforcers. But let us not forget that the warm-mongers literally want the lights out. At 8.30pm tonight in my corner of New Hampshire, we are supposed to extinguish every blazing bulb and sit in the dark for "Earth Hour". Most of my neighbors seem to turn in around 8pm, so it won't be noticeably different out there.

Nor, indeed, will it be in municipalities with a more obvious appetite for late-night carousing: The Great Australian Wag Tim Blair calls Earth Hour the Johnny No Mates of climate activism.

My favorite Earth Hour of recent years was spent in London in March 2011. At the appointed hour, I sauntered down Piccadilly to find that usually brilliant thoroughfare instead dark and all but deserted - because so-called "anarchists" (an odd term for pro-government welfare-funded thugs) had cheerfully spent the afternoon firing fireworks into knots of startled shoppers (including young children) who hadn't expected the coppers to lose control quite so easily, and smashing the windows not just of the Ritz Hotel but of more modest sandwich shops. They then proceeded to Trafalgar Square, where they set fires, lobbed bottles and desecrated my old pal Boris Johnson's 2012 Olympic Clock.

[BenLurkin]

[alloysteel]

What did liberals use for lighting purposes before they had candles?

Electricity.

[exnavy]

I will leave extra lights on all night.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

That's a start; but, not enough. I turn everything off, for at least an hour before Earth Hour — because that sets the baseline for determining supposed “savings”. Then, I turn on everything again, for Earth Hour. By “everything” I mean all lights, all appliances, electric heaters, hot water heater and all electronics. That way, I cancel out the “savings” of a dozen warmist sheeple. Yes, I can be a tad obsessive.

[samtheman]

That’s a good idea. Thanks for sharing.

[rktman]

Start early and let them run all night if you can.

[Fiddlstix]

[Rummyfan]

My favorite Earth Hour of recent years was spent in London in March 2011. At the appointed hour, I sauntered down Piccadilly to find that usually brilliant thoroughfare instead dark and all but deserted - because so-called "anarchists" (an odd term for pro-government welfare-funded thugs) had cheerfully spent the afternoon firing fireworks into knots of startled shoppers (including young children) who hadn't expected the coppers to lose control quite so easily, and smashing the windows not just of the Ritz Hotel but of more modest sandwich shops. They then proceeded to Trafalgar Square, where they set fires, lobbed bottles and desecrated my old pal Boris Johnson's 2012 Olympic Clock.

Luddite thugs.