I'm not going to join the discussion on the actual effects/benefits of the earth hour in terms of saving energy/fuel/private ryan/whatever.
I'm not going to be a dick to people who believe in something either. You can support earth hour as much as you want, but please don't look down on me just because I choose not to join it. I just have a problem with the concept. It's like those colored ribbon things: I wore a yellow ribbon to show my support for [insert cause]. I may even join a rally somewhere or throw a rock at a random soldier. But after that is all over, what's next? The status quo is unchanged.
You inconvenienced the opposition for about a day but after that you're left with nothing but a smug feeling that you "did your part". People who are aware that they are not doing their job is probably only slightly worse than People who believe they did their job even though they only did a fraction of it.
After Earth Hour, how many people who participated sold their power hungry multi core PCs and bought an Atom based HTPC that only consumes 25watts on full load? Or how many started unplugging every single unused electronic appliance in the house that is on standby? How many of these people stopped supporting big companies that obviously leave a big footprint on the country's energy consumption?
Or a different question: how many people who participated in the earth hour went back to their old ways like nothing ever happened, only to be Environmentally-aware and supportive the next year when earth hour comes again?
I actually believe that Earth Hour is more useful as symbol, and a powerful one at that. But my problem is that it fools people into thinking that they actually made a big difference.
I think the reason why it's such a huge hit is because it's very easy, I mean how hard can it be to turn off a light for a couple of hours? People think they turn off their lights for a few hours and the earth will be saved, not even bothering to check if it actually made a long term difference. It's instant justification for your worth as a human being.
You don't see the same amount of global support for things that will actually make a difference, like getting rid of power hungry appliances and vehicles (and I don't mean just gas guzzlers. Any car that runs on gas. Use a bike or something) or home cooking instead of depending on fastfood from companies that have large electricity consumptions. Because that would actually need effort and sacrifice, and who wants that? Screw all of that. Just turn off your lights for a couple of hours, BAM! EARTH SAVED.
