The problem with Earth Hour

With most things in life, you can just quietly not participate. Even things with a lot of social pressure, you can just sit at home and do your own thing. You're "supposed to" spend xmas with your family, but if you just stay home and do your own thing people won't notice (except perhaps your family). You're "supposed to" go out on New Year's Eve, but if you just stay home and do your own thing people won't notice. With most things in life, if you don't participate you're just quietly staying out of everyone's way.

But with Earth Hour, if you don't do it, everyone will notice because you'll be all lit up. If you don't participate, you'll be a big loud shiny beacon. The only way to quietly stay out of everyone's way is to participate.

Once upon a time my then-employer had a fundraiser. You donate $5 to cancer research, and you "get to" come to work in costume. Problem was, I don't own any costumes and didn't really want to put all the time and effort into thinking of and making one. I did donate to cancer research ($20 because there was no change) because it was the right thing to do, but I didn't wear a costume because I didn't think I should be punished for my generous donation with a complicated and time-consuming chore. But I stuck out like a sore thumb, looking to everyone who walked by like someone who didn't care about cancer, and I really resented this attempt to bully me into a hugely inconvenient chore in return for having done the right thing.

I use under 200 kWh a month. My last bill was 198 kWh. (The average household is 1000 kWh, according to the general consensus of the first page of google results.) I have so many offsets that my carbon footprint is negative. The reason for all of this is because I happen to live in a very enviro-centric building that does all kinds of things to reduce its residents' footprints. However, because of the way the windows are and the way the blinds are (both of which are dictated by the landlord) if I have any lights on people outside will be able to see, even if I close the blinds. I have a lot of things that need to get done this weekend, all of which require either the computer or electric light (candlelight won't do). Turning off at 8 pm would be a massive inconvenience, so basically I'd just be killing time with busywork until 9. I'm already doing the right thing every single day of my life (and paying rent that's significantly higher than the neighbourhood average for the privilege of living in a building that enables me to do so.) I very much resent being bullied into inconvenience. If I wanted to live into a world where I'm bullied into conformity and if I don't conform I stick out like a sore thumb so everyone can point and judge, I'd go back to middle school.