Celebrating “Blackout Night” at the time of the March equinox, half-way between mid-summer and mid-winter in both hemispheres, shows that "Earth Hour" is nothing more than green tokenism.
This date, with the sun exactly on the equator, was cynically placed on the mildest night of the year to ensure that the candles and champagne parties are unlikely to be inconvenienced by summer heat or winter snow.
Sensible people know that the sun, the planets and the seasons control earth's cycles of weather and climate, and they appreciate man's magic of electricity which allows them to moderate nature's periodic extremes of heat and cold at the flick of a switch.
Instead of sneering at human achievements, they should salute the people who provide light, heat and cooling for the other 364 days of the year.
Our salute will be to turn on every light on our property.
Viv Forbes, Chairman, The Carbon Sense Coalition, has spent his life working in exploration, mining, farming, infrastructure, financial analysis and political commentary. He has worked for government departments, private companies and now works as a private contractor and farmer.
Viv has also been a guest writer for the Asian Wall Street Journal, Business Queensland and mining newspapers. He was awarded the “Australian Adam Smith Award for Services to the Free Society” in 1988, and has written widely on political, technical and economic subjects.
