In case you missed it, environmental groups told us that we should turn off all lights for one hour tonight. This is the perfect example of what environmentalism is all about–all spectacle and no benefit for the environment.

Earthhour.org explains that “On 31 March 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour. If the greenhouse reduction achieved in the Sydney CBD during Earth Hour was sustained for a year, it would be equivalent to taking 48,616 cars off the road for a year.”

That sounds pretty impressive–the equivalent of taking 49,000 cars off the road for a year by just turning off the lights for one hour.

The problem is that in reality, Earth Hours don’t achieve any real greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Turning off the lights would only reduce greenhouse gas emissions if that means this caused less coal or natural gas to be burned at a power plant. But turning off the lights for one hour will not achieve this. Coal and natural gas-fired power plants have to be kept “at temperature” and ready to produce electricity. Often these types of plants keep their boilers at 700 degrees F or higher. It can take days to heat up a boiler to these temperatures.

Reducing electricity consumption for one hour, as called for with Earth Hour will not cause the plant owner to burn any less fuel because the boilers have to be hot and ready to produce electricity at the end of the hour. The power plants might burn slightly less fuel because they aren’t producing as much electricity, but it is a very, very slight difference.

While the promoters of Earth Hour claimed in 2007 they achieved the same result as taking 49,000 cars off the road for a year, in reality it is closer to taking 49 cars off the road for a year. But this is what environmentalism is all about–creating a nice-looking spectacle instead of actually working on something that benefits the environment.