Beans Wit Attitude: Earth Hour

In Sydney, Australia during 2007, 2.2 million homes and businesses turned off their lights as part of Earth Hour.

And in case you have been too busy writing your “Global Warming is a Hoax” essay and missed the news, here is an update: over 4,000 cities in 88 countries participated on Saturday, and the number will likely continue to grow.

Over 60,000 people showed up for an Earth Hour festival in New Zealand, the stadiums used for the Olympics in China went black, and the world’s tallest tower in Dubai was lost in the darkness.

Yes, Earth Hour has hopped on the media train and is gaining speed and support.

Its popularity, however, has unfortunately garnered some criticism as well.

It is inevitable the cynics jump on anything that begins to unite people. How could someone have such contempt for a project with such heart?

Alas, I have heard their complaints and actually found one piece of constructive criticism: what is one hour going to do?

The World Worldlife Fund has recognized it cannot determine how much energy is saved during Earth Hour. To say it does nothing is ridiculous, but I cannot see how it has any significant effects on energy consumption.

During Earth Hour in 2008, I remember looking outside to see if anyone was participating; it looked as though nobody on campus knew anything of the campaign.

Environmental policy does not appear to be a prevalent issue among young people. In the 2008 presidential election, according to the Pew Research Center, energy policy ranked fifth as an issue among voters aged 18-29, right behind health care and terrorism.

While I believe that the new generation recognizes the environmental harm being done, I bet if you asked your average college student what the Kyoto Protocol was, he or she wouldn’t know.

So how do we make them care?

I would compare this dilemma to the 2008 presidential election. There was a big push for the young vote last year and Obama was at the forefront. He attended hip-hop concerts, spoke at college universities, and sent out mass e-mails to his supporters, catering to the new generation.

Why does my vote matter? This was a question many young voters probably asked themselves. I know I did. Rationally, especially in Illinois, it made no sense to bother voting in the presidential election. Obama was projected to win from the start and everybody knew it.

But still, 2.2 million more young voters showed up to vote in 2008 than in 2004, showing that America’s youth is finally starting to care. It has not become a question of "does my vote matter?" but instead a question of "does caring matter?"

This generation does care about the environment, and the young population must be mobilized into caring about energy policy.

Caring about energy policy may not put up any hard numbers in the short-term, but I believe this is only the beginning. As Earth Hour gains momentum, the young can jump on board. If it became a regular event, say monthly instead of yearly, it would have more of an effect.

2008 was the year young people finally had a say in the presidential election, so let us make 2009 the year they show support for energy policy.

Earth Hour may be over, but we can still help: turn off your lights if necessary, shut off your computer when it is not in use, and instead of watching television, read a book. Instead of making a change for an hour, we should be making life changes and doing our part to protect the environment.

Just by showing that we care, we can prove the critics wrong.