Cold and dark

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Last updated on May 20th, 2017 at 09:56 am

A form of Gore Effect struck Melbourne’s anti-warmening Earth Hour:

More than 1000 people braved the chill and the rain to see Premier John Brumby and Lord Mayor John So lead the countdown to 8pm.

According to the same Age report, perhaps a few more turned up to watch football:

Of course not everyone switched off. Across at Telstra Dome perhaps 40,000 fans watched the floodlit clash between Carlton and St Kilda, the decision made for safety reasons.

To play in the dark or not? That debate must have raged for hours. More on AFL and Earth Hour here.

UPDATE. An Earthian has his say: “The kids who ran past my house yelling at my neighbours to turn their lights off though, well Earth Hour means plenty to them.”

Yep. Bossy little kids are like that.

UPDATE II. The Age predicts:

From something that started modestly — Sydney hosted the inaugural Earth Hour last year — it has blossomed in ways even its organisers weren’t expecting. Across the globe, Sears Tower in Chicago, the tallest building in the US, fell dark. The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco turned its lights off.

Note the past tense. As I post, it’s morning in SF and just after midday in Chicago; several hours prior to the Great Unenlightenment.

UPDATE III. Not all kids are freelance light stasi.

Posted by Tim B. on 03/29/2008 at 01:11 PM
    1. I like this ‘playing football in the dark’ idea. If they’d done it, and if they’d let me umpire, Carlton would have won that game!

      Did any houses go dark from what anyone here saw?

      Posted by Ash_ on 2008 03 29 at 01:26 PM • permalink

 

    1. Co-ed flag football in the dark. That might be interesting.

      Posted by paco on 2008 03 29 at 02:15 PM • permalink

 

    1. Who can remember

      It is better to light just one little candle
      Than to stumble in the dark.
      Better far that you light just one little candle,
      All you need is a tiny spark.
      If we’d all say a prayer that the world would be free,
      A wonderful dawn of a new day we’d see…
      And if everyone lit just one little candle,
      What a bright world this would be.
      which was such a treacly cliche that Roger Price added

      If everyone lit just one little candle,
      somebody would probably light two.

      Posted by rhhardin on 2008 03 29 at 02:58 PM • permalink

 

    1. “The kids who ran past my house yelling at my neighbours to turn their lights off though, well Earth Hour means plenty to them.”

      Our neighbours over the back fence were having a birthday party for their teenage daughter and sure enough, at 8pm their lights went off.  One thing though, the music was still pumping out as loud as before.  I don’t think that was running on candle power.

      Posted by Crossie on 2008 03 29 at 03:19 PM • permalink

 

    1. The West is awash in meaningless gestures intended mainly to make participants feel good about themselves.

      And the people who embrace these things most enthusiastically are usually the ones quick to sneer at organized religion.  Maybe it’s that they prefer disorganized religion.

      Posted by cosmo on 2008 03 29 at 04:13 PM • permalink

 

    1. The juvenile vigilantes bring back thoughts of another group of young fanatics 75 years ago. Germany, well organised, smartly uniformed, good at smashing windows, persecuting strangers.  This lot would seem to have a way to go, but give ‘em time, and a government subsidy……

      BTW, I have to acknowledge the apparently futile earth hour actually WORKED!!! Very chilly down our way this Sunday AM. Tim-you must declare a sorry day on our behalf.

      Posted by Rod C on 2008 03 29 at 04:25 PM • permalink

 

    1. And another thing -we in SE OZ are condemmed to a bloody earth half hour every bloody morning with daylight saving still in force. Like a lot of folk, I’m up and about at at 0615 -0630. Black as a dog’s guts for at least 30 minutes.
      The Age of Reason is dead!!

      Posted by Rod C on 2008 03 29 at 04:41 PM • permalink

 

    1. Earthian’s not terribly astute, is he?

      Posted by kae on 2008 03 29 at 05:23 PM • permalink

 

    1. #3

      and burn down a house,
      or a few.

      Posted by kae on 2008 03 29 at 05:26 PM • permalink

 

    1. #1 Ash. From the big perv I had over a generous section of Ashmore and Carrara, nothing seemed to be markedly different. Lots and lots of lights. Delicious.

      Posted by mehaul on 2008 03 29 at 07:15 PM • permalink

 

    1. #8

      Earthian’s not terribly astute, is he?

      No.

      He said this:

      The problem with this argument, is that there are a hundred different ways to get from A to B inside USYD. Tim doesn’t seem to knows this and we must forgive him – he probably never [sic] been to USYD.

      You would think that someone who had been to the University of Sydney, would know to abbreviate it as USyd, U.Syd or U Syd, not USYD.

      Then again, checking their website, it seems the University (home to raving antisemite Evan Jones) also isn’t sure. Clearly the lights are out for more than one hour a year.

      Probably just as well Tim didn’t go there…

      Posted by Dan Lewis on 2008 03 29 at 11:38 PM • permalink

 

    1. #11
      And we just won’t mention his mention of “Tim’s blaming big wax” – Earthian’s got no sense of humour, either.

      Posted by kae on 2008 03 29 at 11:56 PM • permalink

 

    1. Sure, my kids got that same BS about Earth Hour at school from their peers and teachers – but Hour of Power was more FUN.

      Kids are simple: If it is a contest between FUN and NO FUN, guess who wins?

      Socialism is NO FUN; Environmentalism is NO FUN; Feminism is NO FUN – so if you just let ‘kids be kids’, you’ll see that, deep down, they’re all little RWDBs.

      Posted by Apparatchik on 2008 03 30 at 12:32 AM • permalink

 

    1. Oh we had fun. The teachers had educated our 6 year old son in the propaganda, and we followed along.

      Dinner was late – we switched off the oven. No TV of course. We showed him how much more polluting candles were, and how much worse off life was without electricity.

      He’s only 6, but he got the idea. “So it’s about feeling good while making things worse?”
      “Yes, son”.

      The house may have been in darkness, but he’s a bright lad. Kids aren’t dumb, and they know BS when they’re being fed it. The old hippie slogan “Question Authority!” has a grain of truth in it, especially when it’s the same old feelgood anti-scientific nonsense that authority is spouting.

      Posted by Zoe Brain on 2008 03 30 at 03:59 AM • permalink

 

    1. Earth Hour was today at 8pm. I turned the lights off, and happily gamed away in the dark.

      “Gamed away”?

      Posted by Jim Treacher on 2008 03 30 at 01:37 PM • permalink

 

  1. And the CBC didn’t cancel showing the NHL’s Hockey Night in Canada broadcast, either. And that’s good because it allowed Small Dead Animals to link this. (And enjoy reading the moronic trolls in the comments, too, everbody.)

    Posted by andycanuck on 2008 03 30 at 07:47 PM • permalink