Earth Hour just a symbolic event

Comment on "Internet row as city lights are turned off" (China Daily, March 25)

I understand the good intention of people who advocate energy saving by participating in Earth Hour. But encouraging households and businesses to switch off lights for one hour in a year is just a symbolic show and doesn't really help fight climate change.

As the report said, some people on the Internet argued that a sudden blackout would cause interruptions to the power grid, and the massive power outage could influence the power grid load. Although a World Wide Fund for Nature official refuted such claims, the question is: Will the one-hour blackout really help solve the problem?

Many landmark structures in big cities that participate in the Earth Hour every year waste huge amounts of electricity by keeping their lights on day and night. They participate in such events only to get media exposure and win public praise.

If people, enterprises and organizations really want to do something meaningful to mitigate climate change, they should change their behavioral pattern. And people can start by turning off lights before leaving office or using handkerchiefs instead of tissues. We need more real actions, not symbolic events, to fight climate change.

Charles, via e-mail

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(China Daily 03/28/2013 page9)