Being the Change and All That

Last night was Earth Hour. All over the world* people pledged to turn their lights off from 8pm to 9pm (local time) to show their commitment to reducing the parasitical impact humanity has on our planet.

In my house we gave it a go. We turned off most of the power switches in the house,and sat around by candlelight playing cards. After a while Wriggly needed a feed so we did that in the semi-dark too. It was good to turn the telly off for a night** and I think it reminded us that there are things to do that don't involve passively sitting around watching the box in the corner of the living room.

Engaging in individual activity as part of collective action, on a local, national or global scale, is a good thing, in my (never really very) humble opinion.

But...

Too much of this environmental action is about individuals putting their hands up alone, and frequently having to put their hands in their pockets. Take Air NZ's recent announcement that passengers can choose to offset the carbon costs of their flights. If Air NZ were serious about these measures they would simply make it part of the ticket cost, not an optional add-on. The costs as the airline has calculated them are quite low, relative to the overall cost of flying with Air NZ, so the only real advantage (to our National Carrier) that I can see for the separation is so they can use it as a promotional tool.

Deborah wrote an excellent post on this exact issue in relation to Ecobags a while back. Supermarkets are externalising the cost of a more sustainable approach to a small part of the overall packaging problem, by encouraging us all to buy reusable shopping bags. This is despite the fact that they could be shifting to using biodegradable plastic bags themselves. Even the Cook Islands' supermarket has greener carry bags that most in NZ.

And Maia has a new piece up at Capitalism Bad which points out that even union rags are falling for the soft, one-person-can-change-the-world, options here - for those on low incomes saving power is something they do in the first instance because it costs so damn much.

The capital-intense "solutions" so often suggested are simply not an option for many people. Even for those who do own their own homes the money to install solar water heating does not fall from the sky in great dollops everytime it rains. Nor is it an option to rebuild your abode to take advantage of passive solar. In fact even though in my home we try to be a bit green around the edges we have still not switched completely over to the low energy power bulbs - I'm just swapping over to them as the old ones run out, rather than just going around and changing them all at once. At $5 a pop they are quite a hit on the grocery bill.

As long as we have power companies that exist to make a profit, and aren't above a bit of Christmas Lights Competition Frenzy to do so, I'm not sure that we can make much of a difference, as individuals. What's necessary is to get larger organisations involved, like the Schoolgen programme Genesis Energy has started up to get solar power into schools (Hattip: Directions, the AA Magazine). If government departments get on board with real change to their resource use, as Idiot/Savant suggests the carbon neutrality policy will require, they could lead the way. It would be great to see the widespread adoption of sustainable practices by businesses, but I suspect few will put it high on the agenda unless it is, like the Ecobags case, good for their bottomline.

As individuals we can do a bit, but we can't do it all. To make real change, lasting change, it won't just be what we do in our personal time that shifts the balance.

* Well I'm going to be a bit sarky here and point out that probably it was mainly the wealthier parts of the world. After all a lot of the world doesn't have access to electricity at all.

** Even though Mean Girls was on! Luckily I have already seen it.

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