For Earth Hour 2013 (March 23rd 8:30 – 9:30pm for those who missed it), I was on a hotel terrace restaurant overlooking the sparkly Dubai Marina. The waitresses kindly gave us one of those plastic bracelets you snap so they start to glow (the kind you get at university nightclubs), and informed us, that Ma’am, Earth Hour would commence at 8:30pm, Ma’am, and that, yes, Ma’am, they would be switching off the lights.
I was intrigued, not only because Dubai Marina is an electrician’s dream, in that there are buildings reaching to the clouds that need lighting up, but also because the lights are not only so you can see where you’re going in the dark, but also for selling. Bright neon hotel signs, brands, floodlit malls, beams lighting up the newest highest shiniest building… you get the picture. At 8:30pm, nothing happened, lights remained bright and numerous. At 8:35pm, the lights on the terrace where we were sat went out. We looked around. We looked around again. Nada. Niente. Other lights stayed on, the sky stayed illuminated.
Dubai by night, even during Earth Hour
After about 30 minutes, the Ramada must have finally got the memo that something should have been happening, as they switched off the big red illuminated branding across their towering hotel. All other lights in the windows stayed on.
I was very disappointed in Dubai’s attempt at Earth Hour (although I’m sure it’s not the only place where this happened). For a place where a massive SUV is the chosen method of transportation, and apples come in a plastic wrapper, have they built a society that cannot cope without an hour of light? Is it because of the insane amount of commercialisation (they don’t want people to miss the Ramada sign for an hour), or because of an insane level of energy consumption (Air Con, SUVs, beautiful (and ugly) skyscrapers whose exteriors ‘require’ illumination) that people have got so used to they cannot deal without it? Either way, I don’t think Dubai is the only city where Earth Hour was shunned in favour of keeping the lights on, but it’s worrying.
In Europe, there are so many campaigns to switch off lights as you leave a room, to fix dripping taps, to share cars, to take showers instead of baths, to buy energy conscious appliances and so on. What hit me in Dubai is that whatever we do for the environment; our small steps in our little households, there are nations growing where these tiny considerations are so far off the priority list.
Scary, isn’t it?
To find out more about Earth Hour, click here
