We Welling­ton­istas have been strong sup­port­ers of Earth Hour in the past, and even though Kei­th Ng gave it a damned good fisk­ing over on Pub­lic Address, we’re still behind the con­cept. And so, it seems, are a lot of local bars and restau­rants, with Welling­ton­ista favourites Fidels, Sweet Mother’s Kitchen, the South­ern Cross, Caffe
Ital­iano and Trade Kitchen among the many places offer­ing can­delit din­ners on Sat­ur­day night. We just hope it does­n’t make those poor, frag­ile roller girls crash into one anoth­er*.

Kei­th’s right that the actu­al ener­gy saved in an hour will be min­i­mal, and the pow­ers (no pun intend­ed) that be are unlike­ly to be swayed by the sym­bol­ism, but that need­n’t make it an emp­ty ges­ture. If it helps a few peo­ple under­stand the impact of their deci­sions, and look for prac­ti­cal options to save ener­gy in the long term, then it will do some good. Kei­th points out that switch­ing to low-ener­gy light bulbs is, for most appli­ca­tions, a sim­ple and sen­si­ble thing to do right now. So it’s just as well that as part of the Earth Hour pro­mo­tion, Welling­ton City Library is giv­ing away free CFL bulbs until Sat­ur­day.

[*not real­ly]