The Lights Out campaigners are continuing to get marginal publicity in the South China Morning Post, for their plan to plunge Hong Kong into darkness for three minutes. So far, we have seen photo-ops with models, schoolchildren, and most recently the Lights Out "clowns".
Some might argue that Lights Out only want to plunge Hong Kong into darkness for three minutes, and they are doing it for clean air. However, I don’t think it is perfectly blue, clear skies they are after. A typical environmentalist might say they support development, and dress it up as "sustainable development. However, their ideal is no development, no cars, no modern buildings, and no minerals or dams to power our electricity; a slow return to the cave if you will – all for allegedly perfectly blue skies.
As evidence, we can see that virtually every new development in Hong Kong has been opposed by one environmentalist organization or another. They want absolutely no change to the harbour, rivers, or trees — even if these changes result in bigger flats, more bedrooms, and larger kitchens. They are not holding human life as the standard of value, but rather the dirt, water and trees, that we as humans need to reshape to survive. (Survival does not mean living at the subsistence level either. It can and should mean each individual human being living the best life possible – electrical power, and the industrial revolution have added fifty years to life expectancy. Hong Kong, despite all the alleged pollution, has close to the world’s highest life expectancy.)
At the deepest level, environmentalism is just a variation on other philosophies that preach self-sacrifice. Some have preached sacrifice to a god, others to a party, and yet others to a king. Lights Out want most of Hong Kong to stay in the dark for three minutes. I don’t think it’s anything to do with clean air. I think its all about self-sacrifice.
Much of the problem with pollution seems to come from factories in China, that have to rely on their back up power supplies, in order to continue operations. I think a more reliable power supply in China will go a long way to fixing much of the problem. Currently the power markets in both Hong Kong and China are very much closed. Perhaps its time to open both markets up, and allow for real competition. That way factories won’t have to keep relying on their own back up generators, just to stay in business.
Update: Donald Tsang has written to the Lights Out organizers. According to the SCMP
Organisers earlier asked Mr Tsang to delay or cancel the Symphony of Lights show on both sides of Victoria Harbour on August 8, but he refused. "While we appreciate your support to the environmental cause, we do not feel able to endorse your campaign as it could send a misleading message to the community that protecting the environment is inconsistent with modern life," his letter said.
What Donald Tsang fails to realize, is that environmental ideals are inconsistent with modern life. They place the alleged needs of weeds, bugs, water, fish and trees above the needs of man. I believe that Lights Out is just another in a series of many steps to march modern society back to the cave.
