In ganz Sydney werden in einer Stunde die Lichter ausgehen, denn dann ist “Earth Hour”. Es soll irgend etwas mit dem Klimawandel zu tun haben, dass die Stadt für 60 Minuten verdunkelt wird.

Was vor zwei Jahren eben hier in Sydney begann (ich hatte damals schon etwas darüber auf Achgut geschrieben), wird mittlerweile in über 3000 Städten weltweit begangen. Nur in den Ländern nicht, die auch sonst schon praktisch täglich Earth Hour feiern dürfen - auch wenn das nur daran liegt, dass sie keine gesicherte Energieversorgung haben.

Kathmandu ist so eine Stadt, und über ein Erlebnis mit einer ungeplanten Earth Hour in Nepal berichte ich im Newsletter des Centre for Independent Studies. Siehe unten.

Ach so: Schrieb ich eben, dass in ganz Sydney die Lichter ausgehen werden? Das stimmt natürlich nicht. Ich werde demonstrativ alle zur Verfügung stehenden Lampen und Laternen an meinem Haus einschalten. Mir ist Enlightenment allemal lieber als Dark Ages.

An Hour of Hypocrisy

A few years ago, my wife and I went on holiday to Nepal. On our first evening in the country’s capital Kathmandu, the local tour guide had arranged a special dinner for us. In a candlelit restaurant, we enjoyed delicious Nepalese food while watching folk dancers perform in their traditional costumes. It was the perfect night out.

Imagine our surprise when we were told a few days later that the candles were not at all about creating a romantic setting for us. Kathmandu had only been experiencing one of its regular blackouts. The Nepalese are so accustomed to them that they were quick to light up the whole place with dozens of candles. Coping with the sudden loss of power is part of the ongoing struggle to manage their daily affairs amidst the chaos of political and economic turmoil.

In a strange way, the current campaign for the so-called ‘Earth Hour’ reminds me of our holiday in Nepal. But unlike the Nepalese who are desperately trying to keep life going on under difficult circumstances, the promoters of ‘Earth Hour’ aim at the precise opposite. They want us to switch off our lights for one hour this Saturday night.

Mother Earth, if only we could ask her, probably couldn’t care less about how we spend our Saturday night. But this whole Earth Hour thing has never really been about the planet at all. In fact, it has always been an exercise in self-righteousness and hypocrisy. The symbolism with which they are promoting their endarkenment is quite enlightening. They are returning us to a dark age.

Far from switching off the lights in our world, the real challenge is to switch them on in developing countries. There are still millions of people who do not have access to reliable sources of energy – not only in Kathmandu. And for those of us in the developed world, the tricky question for future generations will be to keep the lights shining while reducing our dependence on traditional forms of energy.

You have to be well-nourished, well-housed, and well-off in order to develop some sort of moralistic satisfaction from switching off your lights. Meanwhile, the poor inhabitants of Kathmandu are ‘celebrating’ their Earth Hour almost on a daily basis – for all the wrong reasons. No wonder Nepal is not taking part in this year’s Earth Hour craze.

As much as we may find the occasional candlelight dinner romantic, a life without secure energy clearly is not.

(Dr. Oliver Marc Hartwich)