How to fake Earth Hour

Set up candles so that you're between the candle and the window. Don't turn on any lights that are closer to the window than the candle is. Then any shadows thrown on your windows and visible to the outside world will be cast by candlelight, and anyone who's snooping will think that you're just going about life by candlelight. You can then use your computer with impunity, as long as the screen doesn't face the window.

That said, I didn't want to be one of those assholes like in the Globe and Mail comments but I didn't want to be bullied into doing Earth Hour either. So I closed the blinds (which I normally do for privacy after dark anyway), turned out the lights (which I normally do after dark when I don't need them anyway, not out of environmentalism or thriftiness but because it's better for my circadian rhythms), set up my decoy candles, and went about doing the task I was dreading most of all the tasks on my to-do list. Then at least there was some element of sacrifice, although not environmental. (But ultimately, getting that task out of the way contributed more to my overall fulfillment of all my current responsibilities than reading by candlelight for an hour would have. It didn't contribute to the greater good of humanity, but I don't think anything on my to-do list at the moment does. Overall, I probably contribute most to humanity by keeping out of its way.)

But looking out the window, everything looked the same as ever. Some lights were on, some lights were off. There were one or two areas that might possibly have been darker than usual (I'm not sure exactly, I don't normally pay that much attention to how many lights are on) but if I hadn't known something was going on I wouldn't have thought "Wow, it's really dark over there." So nobody would have noticed if I'd gone about life normally anyway, which is reassuring.

Actually, another problem with Earth Hour is that it's impossible to invisibly opt out, but if you do participate it looks exactly the same as if you happen to not be home at the time.

The Toronto Star updated during Earth Hour, which seemed inappropriate. Since they're the primary proponent, they shouldn't really give people reasons to be going on the internet during Earth Hour, should they? I do like what google.ca did though - they made their page black instead of white! It doesn't actually save monitor energy, but I have to give them credit for a very visible and effective way of raising awareness, even though I don't agree with what they were raising awareness for.

Here's a proposal for next time: instead of everyone turn off their lights for an hour, how about everyone take their car off the road for a given hour? Let's see which gets more participants. Let's see which has greater effect.