Why didn't Vancouver residents turn off lights for Earth Hour?

Robson Street, Vancouver during Earth Hour 2008

Earth Hour is an idea that started in Australia. The idea is to get people everywhere on the planet Earth thinking about how they use power, and the effect they have on the planet. So last night between 8pm and 9pm local time, people were encouraged to turn off the lights and anything else they could safely turn off to conserve power. The electricity companies would watch the consumption for the hour so they could report the results of these efforts.

The results are still being tallied and reported, but I've heard about reductions in specific places in B.C. that ranged from 3% to 30% power reductions during that hour.

The problem is, as my spouse and I sat on our enclosed balcony with a candle, we read a magazine by the light of Robson Street and the apartments across the alley from us. We had no lack of light. Neon signs, brightly lit restaurants, and neighbors with all of their lights in every room of their apartments glowing with no thoughts at all about the planet lit our magazine.

So did people Not know about Earth Hour? Or did they know about it and not care?

Yesterday we had a freak hail / snow storm in Vancouver and there is still a bit of snow on the ground today. We typically don't get snow in Vancouver, even in the winter – yes, that is odd for the city hosting the next Olympic Winter Games. So yesterday's “weird weather” was perhaps a result of “Global Climate Change” aka “Global Warming” aka “Wake the *** up, you stupid monkeys”. So it's not as if everyone was oblivious to the change in the weather. But many people were oblivious to the need to think about what humans are doing to the planet.

So Long And Thanks For All The Fish...