This time last year, I described Earth Hour as “a largely meaningless piece of slacktivism where people pretend that one hour of environmental posing by switching off lights is more important than long-term behavioural change”. That’s still what I think, and the folks behind Earth Hour are obviously alive to that kind of criticism, since the theme for this year’s event on Saturday is “go beyond the hour”, encouraging people to make long-term changes.

This Saturday marks the annual Earth Hour event, a largely meaningless piece of slacktivism where people pretend that one hour of environmental posing by switching off lights is more important than long-term behavioural change. Ignore the candle crusade and do something over the weekend that will have a more permanent environmental impact.