What could be more symbolic of the willful decline of civilization that this:

"Following San Francisco's lead, Los Angeles County and city officials are urging people, businesses and government to switch off nonessential lights for one hour next month to save energy."

By "nonessential," they don't mean lights you're not using anyway. They mean lights you don't need to perform emergency surgery. In the original "Earth Hour" in Sydney, 2.2 million people supposedly turned out the lights in homage to the Earth Goddess.

Supposedly turning off all the lights will prolong the Earth's doom by limiting the CO2 emitted in the generation of electricity. Breathing also emits CO2. Maybe instead of "Earth Hour" we should try "Earth Minute," where we save the polar bears by holding our breath.

Beyond the pointless symbolism, the implication is clear. If we want to save the planet, we need to turn out the lights on human civilization and return to the darkness for which liberals seem to long.