esrosedotblog

LIGHTS OUT

We got an email the other day from a friend spreading the word that there would be a lights out tonight in Palm Springs. Official. The City Council.

I wish I still had it.

The last line of it said that "of course, necessary lights would remain on".

LOL

Here is the big deal.

Earth Hour.

You can even sign a petition. That will make you feel better.

Then, at the end of the hour, go turn on all your extra lights and go about your business as usual. That'll fix the shit.

This is the kind of thing that I, illiberally, oppose on the face of it.

Ceremonial little actions that mean nothing. One hour a year. Feel good about your greenity and then go on with your wasteful little life.

I will be asleep so my lights will be off. Except those that are necessary of course.

This is like the marches for AIDS and the dances for breast cancer and all the rest of the silly diversions from true altruism or selflessness. I walk, therefore I am. Or something.

I have tried it, incidentally, and I have to report only that I felt cheap and incomplete and, sadly, little of it ever added to my sensitivity or greater contribution.

Organized self satisfaction. The ceremonial smug.

While I am at it, let's here it for the end of the incandescent bulb. We are all to switch to CFLs.

A progress report.

Do New Bulbs Save Energy If They Don't Work?

Another boondoggle. I have written about our own experience with these things. Limited but still.

No conversion here.

The light is poor and the cost is high and, from the reports of friends, they don't last. Period.

I know. I am resisting the inevitable. But sometimes the inevitable is worth resisting.

Labels: environment