EDITORIAL – Symbolisms and fanfare do not solve problems

Several major cities all over the world switched off their lights for an hour last March 29, plunging millions of people into darkness, in a symbolic effort to raise awareness about global warming.

Judging by reports, the effort to plunge millions of people into darkness in major cities around the world was met with sweeping success. The problem was that the effort was precisely what it was, purely symbolic.

If only the darkness could be translated into some real, concrete and tangible step toward achieving a reduction in global warming, then maybe more switching off of lights should be undertaken by more and more cities the world over.

But even if all cities, from the biggest to the smallest, participate in an hour-long switching off of lights each day of each year onward, the effort would still amount to nothing unless the governments of these cities take the necessary action against global warmings.

All the switching off of lights will amount to nothing more than paying lip service to one of the greatest challenges facing mankind if the necessary action that is required to fight the challenge remains ignored and undone.

The great switch-off initiative actually begun last year in Sydney and has become a global event this year. And with so much fanfare attending the activity, one would have thought the real objective of reducing global warming was already within reach.“But nothing could be farther from the truth. While the activity has been described as having become global, it is so only because the participating cities made it appear that each continent is represented.

Yet, counting the countries involved in the effort, they only come up to 35, a far cry from the roughly 200 nations on earth. Even in something that is largely symbolic, no much headway has really been achieved. The lesson here is that symbolic things do not really solve problems.