Earth Hour: A Dissent by Ross McKitrick
In 2009 I was asked by a journalist for my thoughts on the importance of Earth Hour. Here
is my response.
I abhor Earth Hour. Abundant, cheap electricity has been the greatest source of human
liberation in the 20th century. Every material social advance in the 20th century depended
on the proliferation of inexpensive and reliable electricity. Giving women the freedom to
work outside the home depended on the availability of electrical appliances that free up time
from domestic chores. Getting children out of menial labour and into schools depended on
the same thing, as well as the ability to provide safe indoor lighting for reading.
Development and provision of modern health care without electricity is absolutely
impossible. The expansion of our food supply, and the promotion of hygiene and nutrition,
depended on being able to irrigate fields, cook and refrigerate foods, and have a steady
indoor supply of hot water. Many of the world's poor suffer brutal environmental conditions
in their own homes because of the necessity of cooking over indoor fires that burn twigs and
dung. This causes local deforestation and the proliferation of smoke- and parasite-related
lung diseases. Anyone who wants to see local conditions improve in the third world should
realize the importance of access to cheap electricity from fossil-fuel based power generating
stations. After all, that's how the west developed.
The whole mentality around Earth Hour demonises electricity. I cannot do that, instead I
celebrate it and all that it has provided for humanity. Earth Hour celebrates ignorance,
poverty and backwardness. By repudiating the greatest engine of liberation it becomes an
hour devoted to anti-humanism. It encourages the sanctimonious gesture of turning off
trivial appliances for a trivial amount of time, in deference to some ill-defined abstraction
called “the Earth,” all the while hypocritically retaining the real benefits of continuous,
reliable electricity. People who see virtue in doing without electricity should shut off their
fridge, stove, microwave, computer, water heater, lights, TV and all other appliances for a
month, not an hour. And pop down to the cardiac unit at the hospital and shut the power off
there too.
I don't want to go back to nature. Travel to a zone hit by earthquakes, floods and hurricanes
to see what it’s like to go back to nature. For humans, living in "nature" meant a short life
span marked by violence, disease and ignorance. People who work for the end of poverty
and relief from disease are fighting against nature. I hope they leave their lights on.
Here in Ontario, through the use of pollution control technology and advanced engineering,
our air quality has dramatically improved since the 1960s, despite the expansion of industry
and the power supply. If, after all this, we are going to take the view that the remaining air
emissions outweigh all the benefits of electricity, and that we ought to be shamed into
sitting in darkness for an hour, like naughty children who have been caught doing
something bad, then we are setting up unspoiled nature as an absolute, transcendent ideal
that obliterates all other ethical and humane obligations. No thanks. I like visiting nature
but I don't want to live there, and I refuse to accept the idea that civilisation with all its
trade-offs is something to be ashamed of.
Ross McKitrick
Professor of Economics
University of Guelph
Source: http://www.rossmckitrick.com/uploads/4/8/0/8/4808045/earthhour.pdf
Note added 20 March 2016. The advice in the title would be better to have been 'Read this before talking with them about it again.' Since the text is likely to be hard for young children.
Note added 23 March 2016. Here is an excellent essay on Earth Hour: http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-dangerous-narcissism-of-earth-hour/18165 'No, the problem with Earth Hour is that it makes a villain out of electricity provision, the very thing that’s allowed humanity to rise out of abject poverty and reach the standard of living we enjoy today. So, since you probably won’t hear it anywhere else, here are just a few of the tremendous benefits of cheap, reliable electricity: ...'
