Pirate's Cove

Hey, it’s not me saying this, it’s uber-Warmist Adam McGibbon

If you really care about climate change, you should boycott the ridiculous Earth Hour stunt

I am an environmentalist. For my whole adult life I have protested, campaigned, helped to elect climate-savvy politicians and worked hard on what I see as the cause of my life: putting a stop to the dangerous change to our climate that is killing millions.

And yet I hate one of the world’s most prominent environmental events with the intense heat of a burning climate – the annual WWF event “Earth Hour”, which this year will take place on 25 March. The charity expects millions of people around the world to symbolically switch off their lights for an hour.

Earth Hour is terrible, and not just because the symbolism of darkness is very poorly thought out. The worst thing about Earth Hour is that it tricks people into thinking they’ve done something useful by turning off the lights for 60 minutes, and lets the real villains in the climate change story off the hook.

By focusing on individual behaviour, Earth Hour sends out the message that ordinary citizens are the ones to blame for climate change. It passes on the unhelpful message that all we need to do is change our lightbulbs and do more recycling and everything will be fine. Every time someone says that environmentalists are nagging busybodies obsessed with making you turn your TV off standby before you go to bed, Earth Hour has contributed to that.

Yes, Gaia forbid that these Special Snowflake Warmists modify their own behavior to match their beliefs.

Ultimately, this publicity stunt doesn’t put pressure on anyone to change, let alone the genuinely powerful who hold our futures in their hands. And let’s be clear: the people who are wrecking the planet are the fossil fuel companies, not Georgina from Enfield or Bob from Middlesbrough who occasionally leave the kitchen light on all night.

But, um, Georgina and Bob are the ones who use the fossil fuels. They’re the ones who take fossil fueled trips to work, the grocery store, to friends and relatives, on vacation. Their the ones who use it to light and heat/cool their homes, and to cook. Without lots and lots of Bobs and Georginas, the fossil fuels companies would be out of business.

Let’s stop messing about with lightbulbs and fight the real enemy, through financial divestment, through direct action, by ruining the public reputations of those companies responsible for wrecking the climate.

Interestingly, there is no mention in the screed that the Bobs and Georginas should stop using fossil fuels themselves. Go figure.

You really need to read the entire screed, because a few excerpts cannot capture the anger and unhingedness of the whole thing.