Millions of individuals and cities around the world switched off their lights during Earth Hour, which was held from 8:30 – 9:30 pm on Saturday. But, looking at the stats, you could hardly notice it was happening in Jakarta.
The numbers don’t lie – during Earth Hour on Saturday, the total power usage in Jakarta was 3,322 MW. During the same time frame two weeks ago, the total was 3,487 MW, meaning Jakartans only consumed 165 MW less power during Earth Hour.
It turns out most of the power usage in Jakarta didn’t come from lighting, after all. This means that a movement like Earth Hour can only have a symbolic rather than practical impact on the Big Durian.
“This was caused by the weather factor. During Earth Hour, some areas [in Jakarta] were really hot and this drove people to switch on their ACs,” said Bambang Dwiyanto, spokesman for the state-owned power provider PLN, as quoted by Kompas yesterday.
Perhaps then, we should rethink Earth Hour in Jakarta and other hot cities around the world to be about not just be about switching off the light, but our ACs as well. We can sweat for an hour, right?
