EDITORIAL - Earth Hour, yet again.

The yearly observance of Earth Hour is meant to hype environmental awareness among people and nations. It is not meant to save on electricity as people turn off power for one hour across the globe, although it cannot be helped that some power is indeed saved during the activity.

What power is saved by people in one hour of observing Earth Hour, even on a global scale, is too small and insignificant when ranged against the power consumption these very same people rack up during the remaining 8,759 hours left in a year.

Even if done over a hundred years, power savings generated by a hundred Earth Hours will never be able to make up for the power consumed by people over the 875,900 remaining hours in 100 years that are deducted from having a hundred Earth Hours.

Ooops. That figure did not even take into consideration the number of leap years that occur in a hundred years. Be that as it may then, let Earth Hour be just what it is, a symbolic and token appreciation of the importance of power conservation, not as an actual power saver. On the other hand, the yearly observance of Earth Hour has not even scratched the surface of what it has embarked to do. As an awareness program, Earth Hour has remained basically what it is, just an awareness program.

There are almost no signs anywhere in the world that the awareness program has moved on to something more tangible and concrete. Even in the countries where the hype is loudest, that is also where the greatest expectations of achieving responsible use of power is most silent. Power consumption on a global scale has never been higher. What gains were achieved in the alternative power source sector have not been able to match the runaway demand for power generated by conventional means.

Every year, as Earth Hour approaches, much hype is generated for the activity. As the activity itself unfolds across the world, the giant international tv networks keep pace with their coverage. Then it is done, until the next year swings around and the hype begins again. It would have been great if, as a new Earth Hour approaches, the hype focuses not on the activity itself but on new hard evidence and statistics that the countries of the world that matter environmentally have made great inroads toward saving not just power but the Earth itself.