Earth Hour

The following is an excerpt from an actual email (slightly altered to protect the identity of my employer) I received this afternoon:

"Please be advised that Beutsche Dank will be participating in the World Wildlife Fund's annual Earth Hour event this Saturday, March 28. Facility staff will begin switching off all nonessential lighting... at approximately 4:00PM.

Beutsche Dank’s participation in Earth Hour will contribute to increasing our collective understanding and awareness of the Beutsche Dank Sustainability Program. [Yes, that's the one where you don't use the milk for cereal.] The event will also support the Dank’s global goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2012."

Earth Hour? This struck me as a spectacularly idiotic idea, so I visited the website http://www.earthhour.org/ to find out more. There, I learned that it was even sillier than I first imagined:

"For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming. WWF are urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009."


(Watch the celebrities make a difference as they search for meaning in their empty lives; watch the brainwashed children regurgitate alarmist propaganda!)

Like a mosquito in a nudist colony, I thought: "Where do I begin?" But then, right as I was about to dive in with fork and knife, I received my daily Best of the Web email from James Taranto and, as luck would have it, he's organizing a last-minute counterprotest:

"Reader, if you are against global-warming hysteria, high taxes, socialized medicine and a weak foreign policy, Sunday is your day. Show how you feel about the issues by turning on your lights in the evening and leaving them on until you go to bed. If you go out for a drive after dark, make sure you turn your headlights on too.

Granted, the Earth Hour people have a head start on us. They started planning this months ago, whereas we're giving you all of 48 hours notice. Yet we think the outlook is bright for this effort. Tell your friends, tell them to tell their friends, and so on, and we'll bet millions of people across the country will turn their lights on Sunday night.

If no one will listen to the silent majority, let's at least make sure they see us."

Where do you stand? Vote with your light switch. And enjoy the weekend.