Earth Day vs. Daylight Savings

I happened to be in a Hilton hotel in Amsterdam for both Earth Day and for the change to daylight savings time there.

For Earth Day, the hotel turned off all of their public lighting for one hour from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. They also held a candle-light reception in the lobby and lit about 100 lanterns to light up the front of the hotel.

Now, I already have problems with the idea that turning off your lights for one hour will do anything to help the Earth. The power plants have to keep a minimum amount of load running, so I doubt we can "save" much electricity by everyone turning off their lights at one time. But when you go out and buy hundreds of candles and metal lanterns, you probably just used more electricity and raw materials than just keeping your normal lights running, not to mention I suspect candles produce greenhouse gases (though I am less worried about global warming now that more evidence is coming out against it being man-made or even a real issue in the long run.) They also had to print up hundreds of color fliers to advise their guests of the plan.

Daylight savings, however, might actually lead to a more permanent reduction in energy use, though that is debatable according the wiki link.

I think there might be even better ways for a hotel to help the environment, like providing free bicycles which would be especially effective in Holland where bike lanes are everywhere. Or how about offering complementary erotic massages, which would convince a lot of guests to turn in at an earlier hour and save on that precious electricity? I'm sure they could afford to offer these for free since they charge € 8.00 for a Budweiser and € 20.00 for an internet connection.

Did I mention the special Soap Menu, where you can order the soap of your choice for only € 17.50 per bar? Obviously some people in this world are making a lot of money or can bill their employers for such things.