Battle of the Hour Tomorrow Night

Tomorrow evening from 8:30 to 9:30 PM local time wherever you live, is an hour that is caught up in one of the debates of our time.

Proponents of the view that human activities, particularly emissions of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gasses", are causing a dangerous warming of the Earth's climate are promoting "Earth Hour", during which people are encouraged to turn out their lights and use as little energy as practical as a symbolic gesture of concern about global warming.

Meanwhile, as the global warming debate is far from being "settled", others are planning to participate in "Human Achievement Hour" to celebrate technological and economic progress by using more lights and energy than normal as an act of defiance against the "Earth Hour" event.

Now I believe some healthy skepticism is in order about "global warming" (I need to get around to posting more current information and comment on this topic.), but I also favor reasonable efforts to develop alternative energy sources and protect the environment, with a particular interest in curbing light pollution.

So I'm taking a pragmatic approach to this whole dispute. What I will do tomorrow night will be determined by the weather. If it turns out to be clear, I will turn out most of my lights and go out and take advantage at whatever dimming of the lights occurs to observe the night sky. If, as the current forecasts indicate, it will be cloudy and raining here, I will not sit in the dark (or candlelight) for an hour, nor will I waste extra energy to prove a point. I'll just go about my business, perhaps reading, surfing or blogging.

I believe we can have continued human achievement while protecting the environment. In particular, I believe that curbing light pollution and giving more people a view of the night sky may enable more appreciation of the space frontier that our achievement is opening up. While turning out lights for an hour is a nice gesture, more practical and effective ways of curbing light pollution without compromising public safety or personal comfort are advocated by the International Dark Sky Association, of which I am a member.