Google Shuts Off the Lights

I went to Google this morning, continuing my efforts to finish the paper for another class that has managed to consume my life, and the image that I saw slightly confused my only half-awake senses. It looked a little something like this:

Actually, it looked exactly like that, since that is a screenshot that I took. (And yes, I still use AOL at home. I know I'm the only one. I just can't let go.)

For a second, I thought that something really strange happened to my computer settings or something, and panicked a little bit because that would mean I might have to get dressed and go to ResNet. It turns out though, that the explanation was just a click away, as it so often is.

Google changed their display for a day in an effort to make people aware of a global conservation effort called "Earth Hour." Today, March 29, 2008, everyone around the world is encouraged to turn off their lights from 8 PM to 9 PM in their local timezones. (Also, Google says that making thier homepage black actually requires the same amount of energy as having it white. Thank God they cleared that up.)

I can definitely applaud this effort on Earth Hour's part, and I'm sure it will certainly help them that Google got involved and confused probably thousands of other half-asleep people this morning. However, this reminds me a lot of that "Don't Buy Gas On [DATE]!!!" message that gets passed around through e-mail and pops up on message boards once or twice a year, claiming that a national "strike" in buying gas will cause the government to lower the price of gas.

According to Snopes (and please take a moment to giggle at their headline,) that gas-out thing has never been successful and in recent years hasn't even drawn enough participation to be considered newsworthy. Snopes also says, "The premise behind all these messages is inherently flawed, because consumers' not buying gasoline on one particular day doesn't affect oil companies at all. The "gas out" scheme doesn't call upon people to use less gasoline, but simply to shift their date of purchase and buy gas a day earlier or later than they usually would. The every same amounth of gasoline is sold either way, so oil companies don't lose any money."

So, my question is, will Earth Hour be any different? Don't these things have pretty much the same premise behind them, and in turn, the same flaw? Northeastern has had competitions between dorms in the past to see which buildings could use the least power (although I halfway think that has more to do with Northeastern not wanting to shell out for the electricity bill than wanting to save the environment, but that's another story,) with the winning dorm getting a pizza party or something to that effect. But I don't remember ever hearing about the winner, or the event having high participation from students, besides the student group that organized it.

Also, in theory, the no-gas-buying-day kind of sounds like it would work better than the Earth Hour thing. At least the idea behind not buying gas is to not buy any gas. With Earth Hour, you're just supposed to turn off the lights, not all your power. So, I could turn off my lights for that hour and consider myself a participant at the same time as I'm watching TV, listing to the radio, charging my cell phone, heating something up in the microwave and on the Internet using my computer's AC outlet power. Hmm..

So, I wonder if this will really have any kind of effect besides to get peoples' attention. Granted, getting peoples' attention is a good goal to have. But it would be even nicer if this actually proved something to people, like that the lights they keep on in their homes actually do make a difference.