This is a relatively prosperous neighbourhood in a large city, so in accordance with the socio-economic norms, the educational level is elevated and there's a high level of concern over environmental issues.
Anyway, I came back just before 9.00 pm, and noted with satisfaction that, at a rough guess, there was only a third the number of lights on in my apartment building that there would be usually. Across the street, the expensive condo tower had done better than that with only a handful of lights on; while next to it, the large building the city owns, which houses many poorer people plus a good number with disabilities of various types, was blazing at full glare. That, I felt, was a neat summary of where we sit with such issues. Relating ourselves to the broader world we inhabit requires both education and a feelingof being part of a greater whole. Such a mindset flies in the face of both North American “I Am Me” individualism and lower levels of literacy.
I decided to go the whole hog, ignore the elevator and walk up the stairs. It left me a bit breathless, but I can still hike 20 flights without a heart attack. I felt content.
Then, getting a drink, I found my kitchen was hot; I'd left the oven on after eating dinner. My net contribution to energy reduction ... wasn't. I might as well have been posting online comments with the angry people who turned on all their lights and appliances, and roared off through the night in their SUVs to buy pizza. Or supporting the clueless people at City TV who had a fuel-guzzling helicopter flying over downtown, broadcasting images of the semi-darkened city to all the people who were watching on TVs they were supposedly to switch off. (Could they not have put a camera atop a tall building?)
Age-related absent-mindedness aside, what about the broader issue of the fate of the planet? I get regular emails from people who point out the oceans, or some parts of them, have cooled recently. These people might be genuinely fair-minded on science issues, though most of them use the word 'hoax' too often. Global warming is an apparent reality that may or may not be caused primarily by human intervention, but overall it seems we're in a warming stage. The earth goes through such phases all the time, but with so many of us bipedal humanoids here, the biosphere's conventional means of response to shifting stresses aren't necessarily available.
Earth Hour wasn't, of course, designed to have any direct physical impact on global energy consumption, but to affirm a sense of commitment to the world. Against that, I noted in the torrent of online comments on news sites today, is the aforementioned I Am Me faction that's determined not to share that sense.
To cite one example, ChrisW, in Saskatchewan, wrote to the CBC website, “Oh yes - people will think it is fun for an hour. But when these idiots have caused the imposition of carbon taxes, made heating, lighting, travel and food beyond the means of the ordinary Joe, and reduced our civilisation to the level of a third world country, are they still going to be having fun? ...... What utter humbug it all is.”
Which assumed that would-be energy-savers don't recognise we will see an eventual reduction in consumption; or, more probably, a shift in how we use resources, or a combination of both approaches. We have committed a few billion dollars and euros - chump change - to developing alternative technologies so far, because we are only on the brink of real shortages. The increasing cost of gasoline and food, globally, are two related harbingers of what's coming, but there are more. Even if our planet is merely wobbling between warm and cold phases, our sheer numbers and demand for goods and services create increasing shortages. As ChrisW noted, it won't be fun.
I suspect the “I have a right to consume stuff” faction will probably produce more energy-saving innovations because it believes life isn't worth living without a certain plenitude of physical goods. More material progress is made by aggressive-minded people than by crypto-Buddhists. But it will be the killjoys marching around with their kids and their candles who finally push them to do it.