While the World Wildlife Fund is encouraging everyone all over the planet to shut off their lights and anything else running on electricity at 8:30 P.M. in any time zone tonight to celebrate “Earth Hour,” the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington D.C. based think tank, is telling everyone to turn everything on at that time instead and celebrate “Human Achievement Hour.” The video above by CEI (celebrating Human Achievement Hour last year) shows a timeline of how far human beings have come due to the amazing technological advances over various eras. In fact, it is likely those turning everything off will actually expend more energy than anything else. The UK Telegraph reports:
Ross Hayman, of the National Grid, said only a small fall in demand is expected in the UK, meaning the event will not cause less energy to be put into the grid.
However, he warned that even if there is a significant drop and supply is turned off, the reduction in energy will be offset by the surge needed to turn bring energy back onto the grid from firing up coal or gas stations.
“It might not have an effect on overall carbon emissions because we might have to use more carbon intensive power sources to restore supply afterwards,” he added.
Major landmarks like the Las Vegas strip, New York’s Broadway theaters, and the Golden Gate Bridge among others will be turning off their lights, but it appears their efforts to save the planet are naive feel good intentions accomplishing nothing but further energy waste, so celebrate what humans have accomplished over the years at 8:30 P.M. tonight by turning everything on.
