Whale Oil has obtained the New Zealand power usage data for the Earth Hour Saturday and the previous Saturday (LW in the graph).
There is very little difference between the two Saturdays, but there was slightly MORE electricity used during Earth Hour than the same hour the previous week.
Good to see most people weren’t taken in by this nonsense.
See also:
Earth Hour increases electricity usage (Sydney).
Samuel Dennis 
April 1, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Except the Aussie data is two years old and the kiwi one is wrong. (The green line is actually the data series from earth day, with a dip during earth hour, Whale mixed them up)
April 3, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Mixed up or not, what’s the percentage of supposed improvement over one year of consumption? Small number, right?
I guess the point is the lights out is supposed to raise awareness. It’s raised awareness that the whole thing just sounds silly. Not the way to change hearts and minds.
April 4, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Oh, I think earth hour is pointless tokenism (almost as useless as sending a million empty envelopes to someone) and largely something people do to feel a little better about their polluting lifestyle. The only thing stupider is the sort of person that for whatever reason feels they need to be a dick about someone else’s event.
April 10, 2009 at 10:19 am
If it was just “somebody else’s event”, a few believers following their beliefs, I wouldn’t have a problem. But when governments are starting to support this nonsense, then I have a problem with it.
October 28, 2019 at 12:31 am
The following time I learn a weblog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as a lot as this one. I mean, I do know it was my option to learn, but I actually thought youd have one thing interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about one thing that you can repair should you werent too busy searching for attention.