Earth Hour is effective for one reason, it raises awareness about Climate Change. It creates a lot of publicity, or at least some publicity. So, on that merit, it is effective. And even worthwhile.
But, the problem is, we already know this. We are all aware about Climate Change, and the negative impact it is having. However, besides this, Earth Hour is pointless.
There are several reasons for this. The first one is, is that one hour every year is really not going to make much of an impact. For the event to really be effective, it have to be done every week. An hour a week. or, at the very least, an hour a month.
Earth Hour is a bit like wanting to go on a diet. You stop eating all those sweets, chocolates fatty foods for one hour of the day. But, the rest of the year, you are putting all of these things in your body. Would your diet be effective if that was the case? No. So, why do we assume that this is a good way to approach Climate Change.
Another reason why Earth Hour isn't effective is because it leads us to believe that Climate Change is cause mainly by carbon emissions, and the only real contribute to Climate Change.
It misses other key things. it misses that animal agriculture is the leading cause of Climate Change. It gives us the idea, whether intentionally or not, that all we have to do is switch out light bulbs off and go for clean energy to solve the worlds environmental problems.
What it misses is the huge problem of humans clearing land. Which in turn is destroying forests, meadows and other habitats. It misses that because of this we are killing animals, and driving them to extinction.
Often we over simplify Climate Change, creating the illusion that if we turn off our emissions we save the planet. But we don't. The main problem is in eroding natural habitats. That's what we should be focusing on, that is what we need to be focusing on.
So, is Earth Hour effective? In raising awareness about one specific cause of climate change, emissions, yes. Is it a token gesture, yes. For Earth Hour to be effective, we would have to do it on a consistent basis, but even at that, it misses other key and more important elements of Climate Change and our disappearing natural world.