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Symbolic lights-out once a year won't make a green world
By Ni Tao |
July 17, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
BLACKOUTS at night in a mega-city the size of Shanghai normally would cause chaos and pandemonium, as everything grinds to a standstill.
Not when they are intended to be an enjoyable moment, and that's exactly what environmental campaigns like "Earth Hour" have sadly degenerated into -- from initiatives to arouse public awareness of energy conservation to spectacles that do little but amuse sightseers gawking at darkened buildings.
Shanghai, along with a dozen other Chinese mainland cities, joined in 2009 the growing list of worldwide metropolises that enlist in the campaign of "Earth Hour." This calls on individuals, communities, companies and governments to turn off the lights at their homes and facilities from 8:30pm to 9:30pm on the last Saturday of March.
In case you are wondering whether these largely symbolic events have knocked some real sense of environmental protection into people, media coverage appears to offer every piece of evidence to the contrary.
In the latest mass blackout stunt, which took place March 27, hundreds of thousands of thrill-seekers -- for want of a better word -- thronged to local landmarks including the Bund, the Oriental TV Tower and the Jinmao Tower, ready to take snapshots of the city about to go dark.
In Xujiahui area, a shopping haven, countdown chants of people turned into rapturous cheers and applauses when the final moment of partial darkness came. Businesses opted for shimmering lights to create a "romantic ambience" to lure customers. When interviewed, many marveled at the "breathtaking beauty" of a lightless Shanghai. As to power conservation, what are you talking about?
Even for those who do see this annual episode as a rare chance for genuine soul-searching, there will inevitably be disappointment in recognizing that one hour after the limited "lights out" campaign satisfies curiosity, things will revert to business as usual. High rises will be aglow as usual to give Shanghai a gleaming skyline like that of any other "sleepless" city in the world.
These forever-glowing high rises, usually office buildings, render a merely symbolic event all the more futile and ludicrous as a clarion call to environmentalism. The amount of electricity saved in an hour is almost negligible compared to lights that shine for 24 hours a day.
During a stint on the night shift, it became a routine of mine to switch off all the lights and TV sets in our newsroom before I left. Oftentimes I found some desktops were left running, but as their operating system is Mac, which I'm not familiar with, there was no way I could shut them down. Doesn't the thought make us feel guilty that the power saved by effortlessly turning off a computer might illuminate scores of light bulbs in remote, impoverished rural China?
Of course, office waste extends well beyond electricity. In "The Green Workplace," author Leigh Stringer lays out her case for a bottom-up campaign for sustainability in the workplace.
"Each green message the organization sends should be tied into larger, enterprise-wide goals," she observes.
The key to success in achieving sustainability is to effect changes to traditional ways of working and, more important, get everybody on board and permanently engaged, Stringer notes.
Easier said than done. Stringer provides few clues on how to motivate employees to go green, other than the goal of a better bottom line.
This rationale can be at once powerful and unpersuasive. After all, how do you convince an eco-skeptic who doesn't believe that so trivial a practice of turning off the computer, if repeated on a colossal scale citywide, can translate into something bigger?
Instead, they prefer things spectacularly yet fallaciously green, like the "lights out" show, even though it's only a show.
Not when they are intended to be an enjoyable moment, and that's exactly what environmental campaigns like "Earth Hour" have sadly degenerated into -- from initiatives to arouse public awareness of energy conservation to spectacles that do little but amuse sightseers gawking at darkened buildings.
Shanghai, along with a dozen other Chinese mainland cities, joined in 2009 the growing list of worldwide metropolises that enlist in the campaign of "Earth Hour." This calls on individuals, communities, companies and governments to turn off the lights at their homes and facilities from 8:30pm to 9:30pm on the last Saturday of March.
In case you are wondering whether these largely symbolic events have knocked some real sense of environmental protection into people, media coverage appears to offer every piece of evidence to the contrary.
In the latest mass blackout stunt, which took place March 27, hundreds of thousands of thrill-seekers -- for want of a better word -- thronged to local landmarks including the Bund, the Oriental TV Tower and the Jinmao Tower, ready to take snapshots of the city about to go dark.
In Xujiahui area, a shopping haven, countdown chants of people turned into rapturous cheers and applauses when the final moment of partial darkness came. Businesses opted for shimmering lights to create a "romantic ambience" to lure customers. When interviewed, many marveled at the "breathtaking beauty" of a lightless Shanghai. As to power conservation, what are you talking about?
Even for those who do see this annual episode as a rare chance for genuine soul-searching, there will inevitably be disappointment in recognizing that one hour after the limited "lights out" campaign satisfies curiosity, things will revert to business as usual. High rises will be aglow as usual to give Shanghai a gleaming skyline like that of any other "sleepless" city in the world.
These forever-glowing high rises, usually office buildings, render a merely symbolic event all the more futile and ludicrous as a clarion call to environmentalism. The amount of electricity saved in an hour is almost negligible compared to lights that shine for 24 hours a day.
During a stint on the night shift, it became a routine of mine to switch off all the lights and TV sets in our newsroom before I left. Oftentimes I found some desktops were left running, but as their operating system is Mac, which I'm not familiar with, there was no way I could shut them down. Doesn't the thought make us feel guilty that the power saved by effortlessly turning off a computer might illuminate scores of light bulbs in remote, impoverished rural China?
Of course, office waste extends well beyond electricity. In "The Green Workplace," author Leigh Stringer lays out her case for a bottom-up campaign for sustainability in the workplace.
"Each green message the organization sends should be tied into larger, enterprise-wide goals," she observes.
The key to success in achieving sustainability is to effect changes to traditional ways of working and, more important, get everybody on board and permanently engaged, Stringer notes.
Easier said than done. Stringer provides few clues on how to motivate employees to go green, other than the goal of a better bottom line.
This rationale can be at once powerful and unpersuasive. After all, how do you convince an eco-skeptic who doesn't believe that so trivial a practice of turning off the computer, if repeated on a colossal scale citywide, can translate into something bigger?
Instead, they prefer things spectacularly yet fallaciously green, like the "lights out" show, even though it's only a show.
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