Even Earth Hour's most strident advocates admit that a hoped-for one billion humans sitting in the dark for 60 minutes won't make a dent in global consumption. It's purely a symbolic act."Your light switch is your vote," they say.
And that's fine -- voting with our actions, I mean. It's what we do anyway, whether consciously or unconsciously. Besides, turning off our lights for a short time seems like a responsible, decent thing to do, until we realize just what the proponents of Earth Hour are asking us to vote for.
The not-so-secret goal of Earth Hour is to stage a demonstration of public support that'll persuade governments to "put a price on carbon emissions," thus triggering a virtual landslide of sin taxes on our consumption of energy. Tonight, with one mindless flip of a switch, we can confess to our transgressions and literally beg to be robbed.
Oh, Mister Gore -- it's time for your closeup...
That's where I get off the bus.
Look, when the price of a gallon of gas climbed past four dollars last summer, Americans cut consumption naturally, the effect of market forces at work. Artificially inflating prices by imposing deterrent taxes, however, especially to advance a scientifically questionable agenda, flouts the justice built into our economic system.
Enacting the oft-proposed dollar-per-gallon gas tax in the face of the current economic crisis would burden consumers at a time when they're already struggling to stay afloat. Ditto the inevitable result of slapping corporations and municipalities with job-killing consumption taxes -- no doubt about it, that would turn out some lights.
Let The People decide. Let the marketplace work, dammit.I won't be sucked into the great worldwide herd participating in Earth Hour tonight. Instead, I'll make an independent (but no less responsible) decision. When the International Space Station passes over Ohio between 8:30pm and 9:30pm EDT, the crew will be able to see at least one light shining.
It'll be mine.
