Lights Out Campaign against Global Warming!

Lights Out Campaign against Global Warming!

Hi folks! You must be aware of the "Lights Out Campaign against Global Warming" that is being splashed around in every media vehicle that one comes across!

I have a different take on this matter. Perhaps a bit controversial, but with a certain logic to it:

1. Who are the folks who start this initiative? Haves or Have-nots?
2. My guess: It is the bunch of "Haves" who organise such initiatives (including, most probably, in this instance as well)
3. What kind of environment-consciousness do the typical "Have-nots" have?
• Usually, they are extremely environment-consciousness - because, it is in alignment with their economic self interest - They end up re-cycling everything that they can, ranging from old clothes, old plastics, old paper, old anything and old everything. And, they hardly ever use too much of environment-unfriendly products, simply because they can't afford it.
4. What kind of environment-consciousness do the typical "Haves" have?
• Just the opposite of Point 3 above - Typically, they are the ones who splurge on a dozen different electric, electronic, petro-product guzzling equipment virtually every day. To top it off, they end up trying to preach to the "Have-nots" from the top of their ivory towers and indulge in tokenism of this kind.
5. In fact, this kind of tokenism usually results in enormous energy consumption by way of
• an increased traffic of emails, SMS, Phone calls, etc. on this subject
• a flurry of "candle-burning" symbolism, for which a whole host of them will come to the venue of "candle-burning" in their "petro-product-guzzling" private vehicles - not by public transport, not by human effort-driven modes of transport such as walking, bycycles, etc.
• an explosion of media coverage of the entire gamut of activities that would have been "planned" for the "occasion" by everyone who is a who's who of every town and city around the world - be it politicians, artists, sportspersons, corporate czars, etc.

Considering all the above, I seriously doubt as to whether such campaigns result in any meaningful result against the campaign objectives.

Instead, the campaigners can choose the following alternatives:

1. Use public transport instead of their private vehicles once a week / fortnight / month
2. Avoid using airconditioners (at least at home) once a week / fortnight / month
3. Avoid using electronic gadgets like TV, ipods, laptops, grinders, mixies, radios, etc. (at least at home) once a week / fortnight / month
4. Avoid sending unnecessary mails (or marking copies of mails to unnecessary persons) - Apparently, even this has an impact on global warming
5. Skip non-vegetarian food once a week / fortnight / month - it is highly energy inefficient
6. Stop subscribing to all those "junk" mails, newspapers, magazines, etc. which one never reads
7. Choose the "email" option to receive stuff like bank statements, mutual fund statements, etc.
8. Try disconnecting one's personal mobile connection unless it is mandatory to have one according to the employer (after all we did live without mobiles for a very long while)
9. Explore the possibility of practising the above 8 points instead of just talking and yapping about global warming.

Regards,

N

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