[Buddha-l] EARTH HOUR 2012

[Richard Hayes]

On Mar 31, 2012, at 14:12 , Jo wrote:

> Sarcasm?

Naivety needs a touch of sarcasm. It helps keep things in perspective.

> However, the idea is to turn off the lights--not the entire juice box. It's
> a visual thing.

In my neighborhood, we can turn off all the lights in our house and still read very well by all the light that comes pouring in from the floodlights in neighbors' yards. On past Earth Hours we have taken a walk through the neighborhood and discovered that exactly two households in the square mile of our neighborhood association had turned off their lights. The other folks who did it were on vacation and evidently forgot to leave a light on for the burglars. Maybe we should move out of this predominately Democrat neighborhood, where all the Prii (is that the plural of Prius?) have "War is not the answer" and "Give Israel back to the Canaanites" bumper stickers and try to find a nice Republican neighborhood, where environmentally conscientious gentlefolk turn the lights off on the oil rigs in their back yards, so no one can read the "Global warming is a hoax" bumper stickers on their Hummers.

The United States did not sign the Kyoto accords. Greenhouse gas emissions in the US rose by 7% from the time of the accords until the end of 2011. Canada signed the Kyoto accords. Greenhouse gas emissions in Canada rose by 17% during that same period. CBC radio recently ran a two-hour special dedicated to the proposition that solar astronomers say the sun is about to enter one of its periodic centurty-long cooling periods and that five years from now we'll all be grateful for all the greenhouse gases.

Let's face it. We have finished off the planet. It's time to stop kidding ourselves with these wimpy Earth Hour beaux gestes and start planning the funeral. 

Richard Hayes