Dan Proft Juliana Johnson Juliana Johnson posting for Dan Proft yet again published another asinine essay yesterday, this time pooh-poohing the Earth Hour campaign of all things.

Mr. Proft titles his screed, “Don’t Kid Yourself – 1 Hour Won’t Save World”.

Clearly, he’s ready to just throw up his arms and wimp out instead of putting up a good fight to actually ’save the world’. This attitude stems from the pat conserv-o-partisan answer to most of life’s most difficult tasks: life’s not fair so “don’t kid yourself” (or ‘…so why bother’).

Indeed, life isn’t fair and it is difficult at times. But why do we keep hearing from conservative partisans like Mr. Proft that we should stop working to make it more fair and to do what we can — large or small, together or individually — to improve things for all?

Earth Hour is the publicity stunt (yes, let’s name it what it is) which calls for turning off electric devices like lights and other useful but unnecessary items from 8-9pm on March 29. The intent is to raise awareness of just how much electricity we consume and engage regular joes like you and me in understanding that if we all do simple, little things the cumulative effect can be enormous.

Sometimes, to get a given organization’s point across, they engage in a public relations campaign (ie, “publicity stunt”). Even Mr. Proft’s friend John McCain does it — at home and abroad — as he campaigns for a third Bush term.

For whatever reason, Mr. Proft and his jolly partner Ms. Johnson appear to be quite crabby about this effort to raise awareness of just how easy it can be to combat global climate change in small ways. Mr. Proft even tosses mud directly on the very idea of “raising awareness”:

That’s why the explicit mission of these events is routinely the cleverly nebulous and unquantifiable raising of “awareness.”

Apparently Mr. Proft thinks folks are just supposed to use their ESP to know what things — small or large — can be done to protect Creation. Yes, things like going old school, pioneer-style for an hour actually can help and it’s easy to do. (Besides, aren’t conservatives supposedly really concerned about people watching TV? You’d think that an event such as Earth Hour which has the side benefit of encouraging family time would be praised by conservatives. You’d clearly be wrong as partisanship trumps logic for this con.)
But instead of actually offering some alternative ideas on saving whales and the like all Mr. Proft can do is give us some wails of his own. Through and through, his entire rant is chock full of ad hominems about people actually trying to get things done and fight the good fight against global climate change, pollution and other ills that affect us all. Mr. Proft’s whiney conclusion unwittingly reveals his partisan angst:

No one is for capricious destruction of the environment. Truly being “green,” however, demands more than annual self-esteem boosters.

Actually, yes, there are people in favor of “capricious destruction of the environment.” They just hope they don’t get caught and, more often than not, sluff off the bill and the consequences onto the rest of us when they do. Unfortunately for this particular conservative political strategist, these groups also tend to align themselves politically with Mr. Proft and his comrades.

And truly being “green” … well that takes both a raised level of awareness and direct action. And sometimes, as in events like Earth Hour or Clean the Parks Day, both.

(tip o’ the hat to Dan for the title reference)