An Anti Earth Hour Group
AN anti-Earth Hour group urging Australians to keep their lights blazing this weekend is a sign of waning interest in environmentalism, experts say.
The global Earth Hour movement – founded in Australia in 2007 – is asking people to switch off their lights for one hour on Saturday night.
But a Facebook group is urging people to "keep every light you own running during Earth Hour".
The group urges people to protest by switching lights on "if you think turning the lights out for an hour is completely ridiculous and will change nothing".
"Or if you just think people who really believe global warming is a giant threat are dumb, join this group to keep every light you own running during Earth Hour."
Group member Alexander Woodhouse says: "The Earth Hour makes people feel like they've done their share and makes them sleep better... that's nice for them but it doesn't really help the earth."
Another member wrote: "I don't believe the vast majority of those participating have given it enough thought to get to that point. ‘It's helping! I don't know how, but it's helping! I'm helping! I don't have to do anything else because I'm doing this now! Go me!'"
Growing trend
Australians have been losing interest in environmentalism for years, says social analyst David Chalke, who leads the annual AustraliaSCAN survey, a cultural change monitor established in 1992.
"Absolutely the GFC (global financial crisis) has accelerated a decline in interest in environmentalism that was already going on,” Mr Chalke said. "Environmentalism has been in decline among the Australian public for the last five or six years.
"The notion that we’re all becoming more environmentally concerned is not true. We get concerned occasionally when (global warming activist) Tim Flannery tells us we’re all going to die – but it’s not a genuine fundamental shift in values.
"The impending recession has focussed people’s minds and priorities and clearly they are much more focussed of my job, my family, my house, rather than the more distant and esoteric idea of climate change. The attitude is: if the climate changes we’ll live with it."
Candlelight
Earth Hour will see lights go out in 82 countries and more than 2400 towns between 8.30pm and 9.30pm (local time) tomorrow night. Organisers hope one billion people will switch off.
But practical measures – like demand for candles - suggest interest in the initiative has dipped this year.
Last year, nearly 10,000 candles were ordered by a Caulfield candle business in Melbourne to cope with the demand during Earth Hour, but shop owner Roy Merrington said demand had dropped markedly, The Age reported.
"I would like to think we would do the same (trade), but we will probably do half that," Mr Merrington said.
"People's attention is elsewhere … the conversation about the health of the planet is on the back burner, because people are paranoid about money — and quite rightly."
Symbolic
Dr Stephen Healy – associated with Centre For Energy and Environmental Markets at the University of New South Wales- said events like Earth Hour did raise awareness, but did not give people real opportunities to create change.
"I’m worried it’s (Earth Hour) just symbolic and doesn’t go much beyond that," Dr Healy said.
"It’s very difficult for people to make changes."
Climate change would not be arrested until governments and corporations got on board, he said.
Earth Hour’s global executive director Andrew Ridley said despite the tough economic times, it was still important to talk about the issue of climate change.
Awareness
"Climate change is something historically people think it’s too big and ‘what can we do about it?’," he said.
"We all have to be accountable to fix it."
But he also admitted Earth Hour was a symbolic gesture that would not achieve big real reductions.
"It’s symbolic. It’s for one hour, one day in a year for people around the world to work together to help deal with climate change.
"We’re at a stage where a sense of unity is really, really important.
"People need to know that a person in Brazil knows that a person in China feels the same thing." --- (Source: News.com.au)
This photo copied from Anti-Earth Hour facebookThere are some details about this Anti group (sorry, i do not mean to promoting them, just have a look)...
Basic Info (Anti- Earth Hour Group)
| Type: | |
| Description: | If you think turning the lights out for an hour is completely ridiculous and will change nothing. or if you just think people who really believe global warming is a giant threat are dumb join this group to keep every light you own running during "earth hour" (see group earth hour for more details) |
You can read more from their Facebook : >>> Click Here <<<
The total members who join the group are 455 members. For the original Earth Hour Group in Facebook, total members boost up to 618,797 .
Earth Hour Malaysia in Facebook.
Post a Comment