Because “Earth Day” Is All About “Raising Awareness”

Quite right. At 8pm tonight, rational Canadians will become aware of which of their neighbors live on programmed-control thought timers.
And then be aware that there are those who, while admitting their own token effort won’t make any difference, think that an hour of illuminated dissent will result in “driving up your electric bill”. This is less awareness raising than it is an IQ test for the candle powered.
But that’s not all. Be aware when Green Party peepers come prowling your property;

Between 8 and 9 tonight, I’ll be doing what I usually do at that time:I’ll be out with my wife walking our two dogs 5km around our small town.
Tonight, however, I’ll be looking at my neighbours’ windows to see which ones are participating in Earth Hour.

And I’ll be looking out mine to see which ones are skipping national Clean Your Firearms Day.
Related: Take a cue from Google – do nothing.
Earth Hour Offset Project* UPDATE!SDA gets results!
UPDATE 2!Be holistic in your efforts to waste. “This earth hour, think inside the box.”

109 Replies to “Because “Earth Day” Is All About “Raising Awareness””

  1. Bring on the green patrol. Now that the geese are back,my retriever is getting a little itchy to chase down something on the property that shouldn’t be there. Heh.

  2. Language Police, Smoke Police, Garbage Police, now the Light Police.
    Back to the future to Orwell’s 1984.

  3. My neighbor just pulled up this morning with a 40ft motor home pulling a mid sized car (Chevy Malibu I think). I couldn’t help but choke on my coffee and laugh at the irony this fine earth day morning.

  4. Can’t believe I’m defending greens, but I feel they’ve been inaccurately represented here.
    The author of the quote, Jim Elve, wrote:

    Tonight, however, I’ll be looking at my neighbours’ windows to see which ones are participating in Earth Hour. I’ll be noting those houses and when the election campaign comes, I’ll be knocking on those doors. I’ll be armed with the knowledge that these are environmentally aware and concerned people and they are prime targets for a GPC campaign. I may knock on some of those doors even before an election.

    Somebody reading Kate’s assertion that creepy Greens are “prowling your property” might believe that they were being targeted for failing to properly observe earth hour. But as long as they’re just keeping their eyes open for potential donors and members, I don’t believe they’re misbehaving.
    Having said that, I’d like to assure anybody who knocks on my door to ask me why I failed to properly observe earth hour — and I have every intention of failing to properly observe earth hour; I won’t even dignify it by capitalizing it — that they will be summarily ridiculed, verbally mistreated, and dismissed.

  5. Darrel:
    WRONG: This guy is checking out his neighbors to see if they’re doing his bidding! Those are police state tactics.

  6. Ghost of Ed,
    If I hear of dissidents or sceptics or apathetics being scolded by Greens who skulked around tonight taking down addresses, I’ll concede the point. I have no particular love or respect for environmental zealots.
    But as long as they only do what Elve said they were going to do, which is to look for friendlies, I can’t get too worked up.

  7. Darrel:
    Do you really believe he won’t be making note of the houses where the lights are ON?
    C’mon Darrel this is Groupthink. These wackos are turning this thing into a religious festival!

  8. The incredible thing about lemmings, also known philosophically as Slaves, is that they’ve actually been programmed to accept their role.
    They actually ‘think’ that when their Masters tell them to Turn Off the Lights, and they of course do so, that they are ‘doing something about the environment’. They aren’t doing a damn thing. But they are being Slaves.
    They’ll feel good about their Obedient Hour and then, when they are allowed to turn the lights back on, they’ll continue to drive their SUVs, fling garbage and candy wrappers and etc everywhere….and expect that The Government must do something about ‘the environment’. They’ve done their bit, you see. They’ve turned off their lights for one hour. And named their dog Kyoto.
    TVO had a show last night (which I rapidly switched away from after the first five minutes). They had turned off the TV lights and lit their round table with…candles. That’s right. Lots and lots of candles. Now, I wonder where those candles were made? China? I wonder how much smoke particles were released into the air. I wonder how…etc..
    We can most certainly clean up our pollutants, (which is different from carbon emissions) but people don’t seem interested in that.. Now that the snow is melting in the city, the dirt and garbage appearing that has been flung down by these people who will turn off their lights tonight…is overwhelming.

  9. Ghost of Ed, if you bother to READ the site to which Kate has linked, you’ll see that the author is making use of this “earth day” nonsense only as a means of identifying potential Green party voters; any “police state tactics” you might ascribe to this is, likewise, nonsense.

  10. But isn’t it interesting to see the process at it’s benign stage. Walking the neighborhood to see who will self-identify as responsive to your propoganda. The next step, knock on their doors.
    Meanwhile, a few weeks ago, their philosophical guru openly called for politicians who rebutted his science to be jailed – and was applauded by a university audience.
    The gap between the two events is not as wide as you believe.

  11. I posted this elswhere on Kate’s site, but here it is again. Even those hypocrites at Google have gone to a black homepage. Google says, “we’ve turned out the lights for Earth Hour, What are you doing?”
    These are the guys that helped China with its censorship program.
    They want to know what I’m doing. I’m going to another search engine.

  12. “The next step, knock on their doors.”
    Exactly what I was thinking Kate. Anybody shows up at my door and I’ll put his light out!

  13. Tonight at 8 PM, I’ll be turning on all my lights and start up and idle all 3 cars in my driveway. May go out and rev em up occasionally.
    Recently received a flier from my city explaining how they are embracing the GW religion. Two statements glare out from the glossy folder: 1. “The time for debate is over” and 2. “Globally, the last 11 of 12 years have been the warmest on record,”.
    Well; for the first one, no scientist would ever say: “the debate is over”. Some people with science degrees might say that but they have usually gone over to the “Dark”/”journalist” side, because that is where the moola is.
    Anyone care to comment on #2?

  14. Language Police, Smoke Police, Garbage Police, now the Light Police.
    Back to the future to Orwell’s 1984.
    Posted by: Ghost of Ed at March 29, 2008 3:29 PM
    LOL the sad part is that it’s true, my town employees a person to dig through trash lest someone offends the “Garbage Nazis” and accidently places a piece of cardboard in with their regular trash.
    The first time I witnessed him digging through my trash, no protection of hasmat training either, I was so stunned I couldn’t respond. The second time the dog got out by accident, lord can that fella run. The left are so far out in left field they make those that ride “The little yellow bus” look like mental giants. Opps not very pc of me.

  15. Turning your lights out for 1 hr. will not reduce GHG emissions. Coal fired plants are BASE LOAD and will continue at full production. Reductions will come in the form of hydro(water)power and wind power, known as PEAKING POWER. What does this hope to achieve??

  16. lberia sends its greetings.
    “Neighbours. Friends. Even your closest loved ones. In Stalin’s Russia, everyone was an informer. And as a chilling new book reveals, one word from a resentful child was enough to send you to the firing squad.” (Max Hastings Daily Mail)

  17. OK, Gunney99, I’ll bite. My 84 year old mother can tell you when the hottest times were, that’s “were” past tense. The 1930’s during the Dust Bowl Years, 1938 to be exact and gosh-a-mighty, science is in agreement when you sift through all the non-oil-company-sponsored-CO2-is-gonna-kill-us-all-crap. I looked it up on the web, too.

  18. You nuts are hillarious! I’m not gonna particpate, no light where I am but I can tell you the amount of stars visible greatly increases without all the lights on a night – so if yr a starwatcher …
    You should be thinking of how you can take advantage, with all the lights out – you could dump any old oil or chemicals you have laying around in a nearby creek or kill and hide the bodies of some good for nothing layabouts.
    I’ll forgive you course, if you ask me nicely.

  19. The dodge Hemi,and the suv will be idling in concert with the yard light on,for first time all year.The neighbours will bring a particularly putrid brand of homebrew (good Ukranian recipe) aptly named Bin Laden..and around a blazing woodstove,with the high-def tv showing my poor Leafs lose yet again and not one candle burning,we will toast to the fools in the dark!

  20. I wish that I could do more, But I am away from home on spring break. I will have to be content that our lights are set on timer to go on at 8:00 PM until 11:15. I would have liked to light up the night and even turn on the Christmas lights that my wife was bugging me to take down last week.

  21. I think Elve’s comment is great news. Four parties to split the left wing vote! This might be enough for a CPC majority.

  22. I just went digital to get Fox News, I feel more informed already.
    It’ll be an Earth Hour Weekend at Bernie’s, alternating between hockey and Fox News.

  23. Normally on a week day evening at 8 Pm I would be tuning in to Channel 503 on Star Choice for Bill O’Reilly Factor on Fox cable.
    Saturday night I would likely be watching Hockey while my wife would be watching a movie on the second TV .
    The outside lights would be turned off as we have a street light just a bit off from the front of our home.
    I have no desire to get caught up in an exercise that has no practical value other than a form of manipulation or brain washing, partaking in a form of world wide Kool-Aid tasting.
    We will be consuming exactly what we would on any Saturday evening, in Woodstock, Ontario, Canada.
    I will not crtisize any who wish to take part, but I will not.

  24. Lights will be ON tonight, more on that usual thanks to the Green Party. Give the bastards something to look at.
    I so hope one of those greenie imbeciles knocks on my door and says they noticed my lights on tonight. I really do. I’ll give ’em a big, beautiful Glasgow kiss, yes I will.
    Oh, and the truck’s fixed. Four wheel burnouts!

  25. * I understand that the CBC will be going dark tonite, from coast-to-coast-to-coast! Yeah, Earth Hour!
    * Don’t get me wrong. I will be observing Earth Hour tonite, but, in solidarity with my Hawaiian fellow-environmentalists, I’ll be observing it with them at precisely 8 pm HST.
    * During Earth Hour local time (ADT), I will attempt to honour environmentalist Al Gore by matching his home’s typical electrical output.

  26. Maybe it will make us all forget all those belching, spewing coal fired plants, be it lights on or lights off, for an hour of zero net reduction.
    Ah! But a good exercise for the masses and good practice I suppose. After all, the elitists want you to understand, and get used to, who will be doing all the energy saving and paying.

  27. Ethanol
    Ethanol has only 2/3rds the energy per unit colume as gasoline, so if you buy 10% gasohol, with prices at $1 per litre, then you are paying an additional 3 cents, aproximately, per litre of gasoline.

  28. My home in Canada will be well lit tonight whether or not my son is home due to our automatic lights.
    But here in Copenhagen we decided to shut off our computers, light a candle, shut off the lights and look out of our short-let apartment window and see if lights-out was visible to the naked eye. Nope.
    So we walked down the 72 stairs (no lift in this ancient apartment) without using the lights (since there was enough light coming in from the stairwell windows) and walked around for the hour. I saw three flats out of about 300 with only candles burning. And one deli had only candles lighting the eating area but there were lights on in the kitchen. The rest, normal.
    I note from a press release Tivoli was going to shut off its lights. Not a big deal though, since the park isn’t open until mid-April. You have to ask why it is burning lights when the park is closed.
    We walked back up the 72 stairs (which are getting really ‘old’ and we’ve only been here a day), but this time we used the lights in the stairwell. Like all other flats we’ve had in Europe, there is an illuminated switch at each landing and you hit the switch when you come out of your flat and the lights turn off on their own after 5 minutes of so. An easy way to conserve.
    There is a lot we can do to conserve and as a conservative, I feel I should do all I can, NOT because the environmentalists tell me to but because it is the right thing to do (and it saves me money.) For instance, for one year I’ve endeavoring to buy nothing new (except for food and medical supplies.) I’m 9 months into the project and can count on my fingers and toes all the new things I’ve bought (including Christmas presents.) And I don’t feel deprived.
    I see “not buying new” as a way to return to the self-reliance and make-do attitude of my father’s depression-era generation. Just like tonight was a reminder that I don’t need all the lights I usually have on.
    The upcoming recession/depression will cut consumption and reduce GHG. It bugs me that environmentalists will take the drop in usage as a sign that their message is being accepted. I just see a business cycle. Much like the global warming, which I concede is happening, is part of a natural cycle.
    This too shall pass but rather than railing against it, as the environmentalists do, I prefer to simply take action. In this case, by living simply but fully until such time as my business travel is no longer cost efficient. Then I’ll find another way to make money.

  29. Being a crotchety old bastard, the lights are out by 8pm every night as it is usual past my bedtime. I constantly give the wife crap for not turning out the lights.
    Tonight she wins. And because the Habs are going to beat the bejebus out of the Leafs tonight, I think I’ll stay up late tonight, at least till 9pm. Ha!
    I turn on the news…Lead item is “Canadians are expected…”

  30. I propose a “Keep the Lights On for Tibet” for April 5th between 8pm and 9pm. LOL.
    Why not?

  31. Cross-posted at the SDA Earth Hour Offset Project:
    I love candles, so I’ll probably be burning my usual 15-20 tonight BUT, I’ll be watching a DVD and plan to have all of my appliances up and running.
    ‘Just for fun, I’d like to know how much energy Dr. Fruitfly saved in making those ABSOLUTELY DUMB ADS about saving energy in your house? In one, he actually pops his head through a hole in a young couple’s living room, to admonish them about drafty cracks and corners: The Wizard of Flaws. GIVE ME A BREAK. It didn’t look like he filmed by candle light.
    If Sukuki doesn’t take one flight this year and sells one of his houses in order to cut down on his consumption of the earth’s resources, I might consider some kind of cut-back FOR ONE HOUR to show my support for energy conservation. Heck, my husband’s and my carbon footprint is about the size of a sliver of a baby toe nail compared to Mr. Fruitfly Bigfoot.

  32. If a company like Google was actually serious, then why not shut down a server, or the entire site, for an hour in each country at the appropriate time? If people are seriously concerned about Earth Hour then the loss, or slower speed, of a Google query shouldn’t be an issue, now should it?

  33. Richard Ball wrote:
    I understand that the CBC will be going dark tonite, from coast-to-coast-to-coast! Yeah, Earth Hour!
    Yes, I’m sure they’ll stop broadcasting the only show that Canadians watch on that network – Hockey Night in Canada.
    I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if CBC and/or CTV will have news crews pull up at 24 Sussex at 8:05 pm to see if the Prime Minister’s lights are out.
    They probably also have pre-arranged to film and interview Dion walking out of his darkened house with his mutt and only friend, Kyoto, at his side, doing his part to “save the planet.”
    Big news story on “The National”! Gotcha!

  34. Soon there will be food riots all over the world, because the Suzukis and Gores have us diverting foodstuffs to ethanol fuel. A pox on the Greens.
    I like to keep myself warm in the winder under my incandescent bulb. A pox on the Greens, who would have me shiver and sicken while my blood becomes as reptilian as theirs under a flourescent bulb that is shaped like a dog turd.
    Which reminds me:
    What did they do before they invented the lightbulb? Answer: they had to watch TV by candlelight.

  35. A quote that makes you go hmmmmmmm.
    “We’ll all be having candlelit dinners”
    Wonder how much extra CO2 all this candle burnin’ is going to add to the total?
    This stuff is priceless!!

  36. fruitfag is a laugh,sticking his pumpkin thru a hole in the wall. No mention of the need for an expensive HRV if that “natural” aspirator is restricted too much.

  37. And a thought about another quote,
    “Tonight, however, I’ll be looking at my neighbours’ windows to see which ones are participating in Earth Hour. I’ll be noting those houses and when the election campaign comes, I’ll be knocking on those doors. I’ll be armed with the knowledge that these are environmentally aware and concerned people and they are prime targets for a GPC campaign. I may knock on some of those doors even before an election.”
    I wonder if the opposite will be true.
    I mean, it would be worth the price of the extra go juice just to have the peace of mind in knowing none of the Fruitloop Brigade will come a knocking on my door.

  38. I can’t do it… there is hockey at 8pm.
    Montreal (#1) will give a lesson to that shitty team called the Leafs.

  39. (Toronto Star) “On the surface, some of this seems trivial, even counterproductive. Candles produce more greenhouse gases and toxic pollutants than light bulbs, and barbecues are less efficient than most stoves. Coping with this evening’s expected fluctuations might actually lead to a rise in greenhouse gas emmissions…”
    You don’t say.
    The entire paper is an earth hour issue. Hypocritical idiots should stop cutting down trees and belching pollution from the printing plants if they’re that concerned. But of course, none of it has anything to do with the environment, its all about supporting their moonbat credentials and leading the prayers at the alter of Gaia.
    I normally switch lights off. Tonight, every light will be on. My place overlooks the downtown Toronto core, hopefully all the congregated moonbats will look up and see at least one AGW denier.

  40. The Green Party’s Communications Chair says he’s going to go outside to spy on his neighbours tonight while his dogs water the neighbourhood? (He’s making a list, and checking it twice, gonna find out who’s naughty or nice…)
    http://greenparty.ca/en/node/4246
    Will Elizabeth May also sprout wings at dusk and join her fellow moon-bats “Harvesting Green Votes”?
    Scarier than Halloween.

  41. Well we intend to celebrate earth “hour” all day tomorrow by actually seeing some “earth” after this 5 feet of global warming has blanketed the cottage for the last six months we will see if we can burn up a tank of gas ploughing our way into it tomorrow …if not we will take the snowmobiles in and get rid of the old tires that have accumulated there.
    Good tire fire should melt down to the earth…with some brush and kerosine to help…But for tonight I have some beef jerky slow curing in the oven and the radiant heater will be going downstairs ALL day…if we have fruit flies in the hood, I will be putting the outdoor floodlights on all evening for them to find their way to the door…..happy earth day fruit flies.

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