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Affordable energy is under attack around the world, even though billions still suffer in areas where energy is scarce. Clean drinking water, safe methods of heating and cooling homes, and even basic life-saving medicines are out-of-reach for many in the developing world—access to energy would help to end this scarcity and save countless millions of lives.

Yet tomorrow, between 8:30 and 9:30pm in your respective time zone, you can expect to see participants in “Earth Hour” lamenting the very notion of energy use by shutting the lights off, unpluggin the TV, and presumably turning off the heat.  The World Wildlife Fund has organized a global campaign asking people to abstain from using energy for an hour.

What many caught up in this hype don’t realize is that not using energy for an hour is worlds away from what the WWF and other environmental lobbying and political groups are proposing.  Rather than leaving you free to shut things off for an hour or two, these alarmists believe we need governments around the world to ration, tax, and other restrict the use of energy.  This is an affront to our basic liberties, but also a life-threatening proposition for those living in the developing world.

So, rather than taking of the banner of the anti-energy, pro-government control brigade, I suggest that you join the Competitive Enterprise Institute in celebrating Human Achievement Hour.  You can participate by leaving the lights on, watching a movie, going out to eat, or doing anything else that’s a part of modern life.  You can also tell your friends about sites like GlobalWarming.org that are making the consequences of environmental alarmism known.

Also, check out the news coverage that HUman Achievement Hour has received and CEI’s video celebrating human achievement:

USA Today
OneNewsNow
Charleston Daily Mail
National Review Online
Syndicated Columnist Michelle Malkin
The National Post
The Daily Mail
NewsBusters

Tomorrow, thousands of people around the world will participate in “Earth Hour” a holiday invented by the World Wildlife Fund that asks people to turn off the lights for an hour and think about the consequences of their energy use.  Thousands of cities, iconic monuments, and even national government are participating in this anti-energy event.  Even the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Acropolis in Athens, and even the Empire State Building will go dark for the event.

Tomorrow’s hour in the dark—to take place between 8:30pm and 9:30pm—isn’t something to be celebrated.  Its organizers are not asking for people to voluntarily cut back on their energy use, but are using the event as a way to convince those in power to restrict our ability to use energy as we see fit.  In short, this is a world-wide call for energy rationing, taxing, and the hidden tax known as “cap and trade.”

This isn’t just a threat to basic liberties, but a threat to life itself.  Contrary to the beliefs of environmentalist zealots, affordable energy has made the world safer and much healthier.  Those who still live without clean drinking water, safe means to heat their homes, or life-saving medications that all rely on abundant energy aren’t crying out for a energy-restricted world—they want to be plugged in to the modern economy.  Putting an already energy-starved world on a diet just doesn’t make sense.

So, instead of turning off the lights tomorrow and lamenting the very notion that human beings live modern lives, we encourage you to celebrate Human Achievement Hour.  Rejoice in the fact that your fellow human beings have mastered fire, created an agricultural world, built wondrous monuments, invented miraculous machines, and otherwise exercised their creative powers to make the world the great place it is today.

Check out the coverage Human Achievement Hour has received:
USA Today
OneNewsNow
Charleston Daily Mail
National Review Online
Syndicated Columnist Michelle Malkin
The National Post
The Daily Mail
NewsBusters

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