Am I an Earth Hour critic? I hope not, but I may be

It’s been a slow Monday for responsible travel news. In fact, it seems around 90% of the buzz out there is still reverberating from “Earth Hour 2009″, the world’s 3rd annual middle finger to global warming. Is everyone still recuperating from a solid hour of eco-goodness?

The outpouring of support and participation from businesses and individuals for Earth Hour, particularly in the travel sector, was unprecedented. Major hotel chains and destinations across the globe put out their lights for sixty minutes of recognition of the global climate crisis we now face. Many held events aimed at the eco-crowd, chock full of recreational green goodies. Blogs across the web bombarded our Twittery-heads with call after call of “what to do, how to do it” and so on.

About 2,800 cities in 83 countries — including 250 in the United States — participated in Earth Hour 2009, according to Dan Forman, a spokesman for World Wildlife Fund. “It’s all about the symbolism,” he said. “We fully recognize that one hour does not put a dent in the climate crisis.”

So here we are, back in the regular routine, with maybe 360 or so days until the next 60 minutes of socially responsible bliss. Viewers of online viral videos are still “oohing and ahhing” over darkened skylines in cities across the planet, but once these videos are old, then what? Is it back to normal? Do we forget the meaning of going dark for a single, measly hour and go about our days as usual?

An “event” like Earth Hour is highly admirable, and SHOULD call our attention and set our eyes on the bigger problems at hand – reconciling our roles as citizens of the planet as a whole and what impact we are leaving behind not only for future generations but in our current social condition.

I am all for Earth Hour. I think it and ideas like it create a substantial buzz – a visual and tangible brand element – to a global idea for good. The aspect of an event creating even the slightest curiosity on the root of the problems we face on a global scale is a positive force. Every statement, protest, action or awareness effort about climate change is a decent start.

But the problem is that the the “start” tends to stall.

These yearly, symbolic “events”, be they Earth Hour, Earth Day or whatever the next moniker will be, get put on a pedestal in their allocated time slots and are then hoisted aside by whatever is being shoved down our throats next (cue the graphics for this week’s American Idol – hurry up and vote, it’s “important”).

The hype all-too-often is all-too-short-lived, allowing people to return to their daily monotony and brag about what they did in the allocated eco time-slot of the moment.

Let’s see Earth Hour once a month or even, dare I say it, once a week instead of once a year. Let’s not greenwash the minds of consumers with incessant bombardment of “Hey you can do this too!” and then forget about it when the moment is in its 59th minute.

What do you think?