My Own Earth Hour
Tonight at 8:30 p.m. EDT, my house is going to be lit up brighter than Perth, Australia when John Glenn flew over in Friendship 7. Here’s why…
Another “Earth Hour” is upon us. This is the night we’re supposed to turn off all our lights in solidarity with… darkness, or something. It’s also symbolic of a desire to “take action on global climate change.”
I tend to get a little offended at these kinds of things. For one, in my house, we celebrate Earth Hour every day. We don’t leave lights on in rooms that nobody is in. We keep the thermostat fairly low (mostly because I’m usually too hot). We carpool when possible. We don’t waste gas. We pick up trash alongside the road when we’re walking. We volunteer to clean up the riverwalk, and we plant trees because we like trees — not because we’ve fooled ourselves into believing that planting trees is helping make Streisand’s environmentally-unfriendly concert tours carbon-neutral.
As such, I tend to get a little put off when being preached to by fat cats who swim in their own heated pools, travel in private jets, heat mansions they’re not even living in for months at a time and ride in limo caravans to speeches to tell the rest of us how our Chevy Cobalts, lawn mowers, hamburgers and light bulbs are killing the planet.
Additionally, I refuse to acknowledge, symbolically or otherwise, that electricity is the problem and that civilization can be saved by turning itself into North Korea for any length of time. The harnessing of electricity is among the greatest discoveries ever. It’s helped make the world safer and more sanitary. Electricity runs the equipment that is used to make the medicine that saves lives. It runs the cameras that allow us to see evils that are being perpetuated around the world that we might not have otherwise known about — except in North Korea, where you can’t see crimes at night because Earth Hour is mandatory 365 days a year. The list goes on. We should be celebrating electricity instead of pretending it’s some sort of cancer that needs to be cut out of our lives.
Somebody on Facebook’s Earth Hour 2010 page actually wrote, “I can’t wait to turn everything off tonight!” Well why don’t you just turn everything off now then, Tesla?
After Earth Hour is over, I pledge to turn my lights off for a full eight hours or so, just like we do every night, no doubt while Al Gore’s pool filter is still whirring away and outdoor flood lights protect his property. But during Earth Hour, we’ll have so many lights on that my family will have tan lines by the time the 60 minutes is up. I realize I’ll probably get hit with an Obamacare tanning bed tax, but it’s a price I’m willing to pay.
Quarterback Tom Brady and his supermodel wife, Gisele Bündchen, have also joined the crusade to turn off our lights — just not during one of the Patriots night games at Gillette Stadium that goes through enough electricity to power my house until well into the 24th century:
And certainly don’t shut those lights off at one of Gisele’s photo shoots — however, if we did, we might be able to extend the life of the polar ice caps by at least a decade:
My own theory for the thinking behind Earth Hour is that Al Gore and his fellow enviro-scammers have settled on going dark as the single best way to make sure nobody can see them pick-pocketing the world.
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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1. Turn on all the lights.
2. Buy a steak and fire up the propane grill.
3. Punch a hippie.
Definitely a good way to celebrate Earth Day.
I have already cleaned the grill, it may rain but, I plan on slow cooking a Brisket all day. Tonight I may have to light up the upstairs bedroom and the basement as well. The living room will be well lit and the porch light on. Hell, I may fire up the tractor and go for a spin.
I heard Vegas is going to participate by shutting down the strip. Would be funny if they got looted during that hour!
Tonight the lights and everything else will be running normally. So will my computer. I don’t need to cater to environmental fanatics who are more interested in their own political agenda than “saving the earth”. The earth does quite well on its own.
By the way, does that mean that Icelandic volcano will be shutting down too?
Probably…and the sun will shut itself off too
I’m even gonna leave open the frig and freezer to turn on those lights.
Come to think of it, they may be on all the time anyway since I can’t tell when the doors are closed.
*I believe Spotted Owl Bore is going to arrange for the sun to be turned off for 12 hours tonight as well; Oh wait, that happens every night!
*Electricity is by far man’s greatest discovery,IMHO.; 2nd place goes to Gisele!
Oh and I forgot, The seas will cease to rise and the earth will begin to heal also. As well as the Bison will increase in population and roam the great plains once more,the clouds will part and we will have sunshine, even at 11 tonight. Wondorous.
It’s called celebrating Human Achievement Hour. I plan to do that.
It would help if ManBearPig would just keep his bright ideas to himself.
The whole human race could go back to the iron age, and you’d still have Gore and his minions complaining about the pollution from iron production and the cutting down of trees to make spears, arrows and bows; not to mention the fireplaces and the herded cows emitting methane.
For Pete’s sake darn it, don’t turn the friggin’ sun on at 11:00 PM. It is warm enough all ready you friggin’… eh, alright I am sorry, did not mean to be angry. Must claim down! Per some idiots at our great universities, global warming is causing us to be more angry. Rising temperatures are making us testy. We are mad because of the heat. I just thought it was because everyone pissed me off. Thank goodness I can blame it on something. I just knew it was not my fault.
I’ve got two pork butts on, for pulled pork, at 225degs right now.
Is one of them named Al?
Yes, me too. I got real upset when I had to get my heavy coat back out to wear outside today.
Hannibal said:
That made me laugh – needed that. I will say – ManBearPig will control the temp to a nice 75 degrees. Afterall he can control the weather anyway. Sort of like a clap on/clap off type thing.
Doug, we all know why.
It’s because they can pat themselves on the back and pretend that they’re making a difference without any real inconvenience to themselves.
Anyone else ever follow in the wake of one of those walks to promote Earth Day/ecology? When I was growing up, if we’d left trash on the ground the way these supposedly enviro-friendly
mobsgatherings do, our parents would have given us holy-Biden.**in honor [/sarc.] of his “this is a [censored] big deal,” Joe the Biden has become the alternative explicative.
BTW Doug, you have the perfect surname for today’s celebration.
***
It’s a good thing these hypocritical modern day Luddites weren’t able to stop the Industrial Revolution that has given us so many benefits in our lives.
***
Three hundred years ago most people worked 24/7/365 on farms and ranches to try to kept fed and clothed. They sheared their sheep, spun their wool thread, made their poor clothing and blankets. They lived in poverty and died young. Most had no time or money for education.
***
But the environment “danger” scans are just another way to tax us more–and to have gubmint take over more of our lives. Only a fool or charlatan puts forth these bad ideas.
***
John Bibb
***
Ditto. Last night we had to close the windows and turn the heat back on, and at mid-morning it’s still below freezing.
I wonder how many things I can turn on tonight without tripping a circuit breaker?
Well said and I agree completely.
While you are at it, ask Giselle how that whole ‘pay me in Euros’ thing is working out for her these days. Ask her if she’s nervous about Greece and the PIGS. When she says Island hoping never makes her nervous and don’t offend my favorite farm animals – or eat them – then you can say thanks for your life advice.
These fools that are in the group think, lets all join a cause are just that, fools. I would like to see what they would do if in the middle of summer at 100 degree plus temps – turn off their power for 3 days. Just the idea that these idiots could not use their computers or “TWEET” would drive them into a lathered frenzy.
Well, at least they weren’t FAT!! Modern living…BAD! No electricity…GOOD! It is the way we are going…backwards.
I can’t wait to get turned on tonight!
Wouldn’t be funny if the hour of no power resulted in a baby boom in 9 months? A bunch of carbon belching, earth raping, rugrats?
Sounds like a plan.
I agree, but it doesn’t have to be in that order, does it?
Great minds think alike, apparently!
Will a GUTSY politician besides Fred Thompson stand up on their hind legs and shout how bogus this is??
Worst thing is, they’re making kids feel guilty about using ANY energy! The Greens are insane! My niece once remarked long ago that her thitd grade class had a solar-cell powered “see-saw” figure on their sunny window sill which had even a switch for the kids to switch off “to save energy”. I won’t explain the insanely obvious here except that even the news industry has this mentality vis-a-vis electric cars; sure, they’re cleaner — but what do they run on? Pixie juice? They never explain where the energy electric cars run on is supposed to come from! The problem isn’t “saving” energy, but creating enough! Will we still be “saving energy” when fusion goes on-line??
These are the people willing to sow our countrysides and lovely rolling prairies with monster windmills — the darling “whales” of the energy world. BP — why isn’t nuclear energy mentioned in that batch of energy sources you cluck in your commercials??
James Greenidge
Queens, New York
The last time they had one of these things I turned all our lights on inside and out and just happened to look out at the neighborhood and it seemed like everyone else was doing the same thing. Either they proving a point or didn’t care at all.
What’s earth hour?
Like those twice yearly reminders to check your smoke detectors, I’ll use Earth Hour as a reminder to set the oven on self clean, and make sure all the light bulbs on the outside of the house are in full working order.
Since I’m in the Central Time Zone, I’ll keep the lights on for the full 4 hours … maybe even recognize Hawaii too.
Bring it on!
Liberal earth worship.
Since all my outdoor lights will be on, think I’ll fly the flag.
How many poor trees will be murdered by the lack of CO2 not produced by this protest?
Every light and TV will be on, the furnace will be at 83 degrees, the gas grill will be lit and my GMC with the V8 will be idling and I will not even be home. I hope my dog doesn’t get too warm!
By the way, do we really get to punch hippies during earth hour? If so, we need to make it a weekly occurence!
Yeah, and while the earth-huggers are sitting in the dark, the lights will be burning brightly in D.C. while the Obamanites are busy figuring out new ways to tax and oppress the American People while excluding themselves from any hardship. As for me, my lights will be burning extra brightly tonight. I plan to install some new floodlights on the front of my house in order to celebrate the invention of electricity.
Good idea, I’ll get my flag our too. Oh, I’ll need another light for that!
BTW, Tea Party Express is reporting that the crowds at Searchlight Nevada have just exceeded 10,000 and people keep pouring in.
We will need to do the same thing with McCain.
We also need a gigantic ten-million-man march on DC.
The eagerness to turn everything off at 8:30 is because doing so at that time represents a giant collective middle finger to human achievement. People like that facebook poster hate human achievement because they know that they have nothing to contribute to it.
As for the posts on punching hippies, there’s no need for that. The hippies of the 60′s are becoming old and frail, and the Obamacare they support will wipe them out with sufficient ease. Besides, why would you want hippie grime on your knuckles? Tarnished brass is hard to clean.
great read Mr. Powers, ty.
This is my recommendation for all these lefty, earthniks, live this way from now on…back to nature as they prescribe. Now power other than one’s self, no oil or products derived from, no lites, can’t burn wood need to save the forests, besides the birds and little critters live in them, no fishing. Not sure what they’ll do for their shelters but not my problem I believe in Mankind’s ability to survive, even beyond these dope smokin’ dolts. Back to nature for them, lazy as they are we’d be rid of them in no time.
Oh, punch a hippie anytime you feel like it.
Hooray for you DOUG!!! I too will have as many lights on tonight as I can… The SCAM of century is winding down, and the GORACLES days are numbered… Soon he will crawl into the cave he wants all of us to live in, and never be heard from again… Just sitting in the dark, and counting his MONEY…
maybe burning it, if it gets any colder around here …
I’m glad everybody’s having fun with this, and I plan on turning on my security lights et al tonight too. But let’s not forget that their stupidity has and will cost millions of lives, so sooner or later we’ve got to get serious about eradicating that leftist virus.
did my ‘burning it’ get edited out??? Anyway, here we go again…
maybe burning it (his money, editor!), if it gets any colder around here …
Now I goofed … I think I’ll do you all a favor and log out… Have a nice Saturday.
Can’t we just send them to the dark side of the moon?
Amen!
“Well why don’t you just turn everything off now then, Tesla?”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!!!!!!!!!
Odd how these “green” lunatics think that turning off unnecessary lights FOR ONE HOUR ON ONE NIGHT is “raising consciences” somehow…
I turn off stuff I don’t need EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY! I am virtualizing old computers at home to save money. I now have three older computers running on ONE that uses less power than any of the three older computers!
I turned down the thermostat at night because I found I sleep a little better when the room temperature is a little lower.
I turned down the temperature on my water heater because I realized the lower temperature setting was hot enough and it saved money.
For these “green morons” this “ecology thing” is a gimmick. For me, it is just the way I live.
What a bunch of putzes!
About 53 minutes. It was 60 minutes but we are now on savings time, so it’s less.
So, Doug the polar bear killer is going to try to spew enough carbon into the atmosphere to block out the sun for five years or so. Won’t that much carbon actually cool the planet? I get so confused.
You may be wrong about that. I heard that the other 7 minutes was confiscated by the Federal Government and will be redistributed to the poor.
Kind of cold here today, I think I’ll fire up the wood stove.
Me, too. The power company and gas company charge me enough already.
Nice place you got there, Sparky.
I will be celebrating Human Achievement Hour by turning on EVERY light possible then going down the road a few miles and fill up the SUV.
Holy Cow Bat Girl, I never realized. I’ve been avoiding the IRS for weeks. They keep leaving messages that say” We want a few minutes of your time!” I thought I was in trouble.
That’s a HUGE affirmative Phil, but this kind of illustrates the contradiction inherant with the Tea Party “movement”. It is by definition
grass roots, meaning no leader or organization – but needs to be organized and led. I read about the April 15 tax day protest in DC, so I mad travel arrangements. Since then, there have been two or three calls to DC for protest – all on short notice. How many times are we supposed to go? IMHO, the BarryCare protest was important, but may have stolen thunder from the big picture. BarryCare is a symptom – not the disease. The disease is big government, burdening businesses, taxing and spending and taxing and spending and…
How do you propose this 10 million march would be organized? Who / how will consensus on when and why be achieved? Just seems rather nebulous at this point.
We will definitely be celebrating Human Achievement Hour tonight.
I’m not on board with the Gaia worship.
It drives the Greenies nuts when you point out that Human Achievement and new technologies has allowed us to make the earth cleaner than it was in my parent’s generation.
Back in the day, she would look 70 with 8 kids by now unless; she died in childbirth.
I’m getting thunderstorms ahead of my earth hour. I hope lightening hits, saving me from having to turn on all the lights and digging into my finances.
I still have my Christmas lights up. One more light to turn on at 6:30 MST. Happy Earth hour everyone.
Well, I got my floodlights installed so I am all ready for tonight. I had been putting off installing them for months. This gave me the incentive I needed. I think I’ll fire up the old 55 chevy tonight and go for a ride. . .stop and fill up the tank with PREMIUM GAS.
One of my two furnaces went out yesterday, I’ll just wait to get it repaired until tomorrow. Will that do?
Dayum…must be cold where you’re at!
To be fair to the Patriots. they wouldn’t know how to turn the lights out without having previously illegally videotaped other teams turning their lights out.
Checked outside during Earth Hour here. Either my neighborhood doesn’t know about Earth Hour, or they don’t care. I think the latter.
I’m going to save the earth for an hour by recycling my stack of unread “green tips” books and magazines, then maybe riding my bike to the store and stocking up on some incandescents. I’ll finish up by getting a few cans of overpriced, organically-grown peas, beans, and lentil soup. I gots ta have me some legumes.
On second thought, forget the bike. It’s too cold outside. And it’s hard to pick up hot chicks when you’ve got a basket duct-taped to the front of your bicycle.
…And when you’re eating an inordinate amount of legumes.
Being on the West Coast only 2.5 Hours to go until Celebrate Technology Hour.
All electrical devices will be turned on in celebration of technology!
I’m sure most of you are also honoring technology in your own way.
Lights on all floors….on
TV with full stereo support with Sabres game running in glorious HD….check
computers….up and running
second floor tv on…okey dokey
front porch light…lit
Missing anything? Sorry, but Christmas lights are already packed away
When I realized it was Earth Hour, I thought about turning every light bulb on in our house….I would rather turn on a light then curse the darkness.
Our local NBC affiliate showed a quick segment on Earth Hour. They showed a clip from the Brandenburg Gate. When the lights went off, just a few unenthusiastic claps. I took a drive around my area at 9 PM, no noticeable change in houses. Maybe few participated but it was hard to tell. I saw one house all lit up, even some Christmas lights on.
Are you serial?!?!
I turned all the lights on and ran the dryer with nothing in it!
Forgot to mention, a WWF ad for Earth Hour mentioned a “clean economeny” and “clean jobs.” Guess we can and Green to the phrases no longer used.
They turned the lights off at work. It was fun trying to type/read in the dark.
What a completely stupid idea in general. If you do this – then why don’t you not bother connecting your homes to the power grid? Using an ice box instead of a fridge? Not having cell phones or iPods or portable gaming systems? Seriously. I mean, come on, turn the heat off in winter and see how many people are worthy of inheriting Gaia. I’m so sick of this environmentalist BS.
What was on tv during earth hour that they didn’t want us to see?
You can always go back to candles and fireplaces, but, then again, the smoke will be polluting.
Nope. The trucks to carry ice would be more polluting.
I grew up without those. I could do it again. Rather read anyway.
It isn’t a question of “saving the planet” and I pity those who really believe in that. It’s about socialism and power. We have 2 volcanoes going off-one in the Caribbean, and one in Iceland, that pour out more pollution than all of us, on this blog, put together for 5 years. I don’t hear a “peep” from the environmentalists.
That is the problem of having Republicans like Bachmann calling us to the capitol steps to hear speeches. That is NOT serving us well. It is using conventional establishment tactics in trying to steer a web-connected grassroots movement. That is why they are not well-attended and lack passion.
The Tea Party groups may be local, but I have little doubt that if one or two chapters were to call for a ten million man march, say July 4, we would be there. We would organize the way we always do, by swarming on sites like this one and RedState (the biggest “hubs of the tail” in blog-speak) and spreading the word like electricity. The grassroots passion would do the rest. Our opponents are trying to sell cancer, we are selling the cure. It is an easier sell.
It would be the biggest political event in human history. We show up like we always do, peacefully as if it were a picnic, sing patriotic songs at the top of our voices for a few hours, and then leave the place cleaner than we found it.
If in anticipation of this event, the government throws restrictions at us (limited access to the Mall e.g.) we ignore them which would create a Tianenman Square situation. Would they even try to call out the military? I am confident that our men in uniform will honor their oaths.
Will they call out the national guard? Maybe but how would you feel if you were ordered to close in on your friends and family peacefully singing patriotic songs?
The message to the world would be the most inspiring imagery ever broadcast and the media would have to broadcast the event. Any attempts to spin a phony story would fail because ten million marchers means that everyone in America already knows the truth because they are related to someone who was there.
If more of us would simply add a call to such a march into our daily message, it would happen.
Adding insult to the injury Obama is already inflicting on our nation, Russia is going to start helping Cuba drill for oil between Florida and Cuba. Imagine if Castro hits it big? (Think Hugo Chevez with an even bigger grudge against us.)
Meanwhile, Obama is banning offshore drilling in order to send us further into debt and prevent job creation. It doesn’t matter what the liar says is the reason such as to “save the planet”, of all people he couldn’t care less about saving anything – he’s not a ‘saver’, he’s a destroyer. He wants as much control over us as he can possibly grab and forcing us to go broke is just the ticket to do it.
Imagine some huge crude reserves extending between Cuba and Florida and we are going to have to just sit and watch as Cuba sucks it away from under our feet as Obama sucks away our freedom leaving nothing in the way of prosperity or Liberty for our future generations.
They way Obama would see it…reparations for the Cuban embargo
From Anthony Watts -
2010 Earth Hour in California – just as ineffective as last year
But as Doug alluded to, it was a smashing success in North Korea! …and they didn’t do it for just an hour – they’ve been ‘celebrating’ Earth Hour for DECADES! As you then might expect, they have amassed an absolute fortune in carbon credits.
So when Obama gets his Cap’n Trade, he will do everything he can to ease our pain and let us keep our CFL’s burning a little longer – buying DPRK carbon credits. (I’m certain he’ll work very hard to negotiate a fair price for them. /sarc )
funny–no ‘earth hour’ during the prez’s appearance in Afghanistan…