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Earth Hour - lights out, minds alight

So what did Earth Hour actually achieve?

Apparently not that much. Turning off ones light for one hour is turning off one of the lesser power consumers in todays society - devices like:

• air conditioning units
• water heaters
• pumps
• air heaters
• large TV's
• projectors
• ovens
• stoves
• etc

All consume a lot more power than the humble, now often compact floro, light. So Earth Hour is not a practical way to reduce power - in fact it might just have kept things the same as people tuned in our their TV's with their hot cup of coffee to watch famous buildings and landmarks go dark; or worse went on a drive to have a look directly.

So the actual benefit behind Earth Hour is only really in raising people's awareness of their impact on the environment - although the question should be, wouldn't it be better to actually educate people about how to live a more eco friendly life in the first place than just make them feel good about doing nothing in effect? Is this creating a false do nothing reward expectation?

For ways to reduce your long term energy usage read this