Celebrating Darkness

Current Events Environmentalism
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I happened to read an article just now about an event in Sydney where people shut off lights to protest global warming. The article has a few disturbing quotes about this being a “celebration” and children chanting “shut them off, shut them off.” Yet another pieice of evidence that the danger of people willingly and actively trying to make their lives worse is far greater than anything global warming could ever do.

Link

From the article:

“It was quite sweet, actually, because the kids started chanting `turn them out, turn them out.’ You can see now the city’s a bit dimmer,” she said toward the end of the hour.

“It’s absolutely fantastic, there’s a mood of enthusiasm and hopefulness and action,” Bourne said. “I have never seen Sydney’s skyline look so dark.”

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Australia has a long history with dealing with light pollutions as well, using street lights that force the light downward, declaring massive light and radio dead zones in the desert. This may just tap into that trend in Australian society.

I can see how one could find this disconcerting (the kids chanting “turn them off”) generally though I find using “the children” the lowest and most annoying political actions - eventually they’ll grow up and lose all of their parentally-induced enthusiasm.

As for enthusiasm and hopefulness it sounds like typical modern society. If global warming is a problem turning lights out will do nothing to prevent it, but it does give a good excuse for back patting.