Such or similar was the call of the ARP patrolling the streets of the cities, towns and villages during WWII.
Whenever a light shone through a window his shout of “turn off that light” or even “kill that light” could be heard.
Maybe today we need a similar kind of patrol, the officers of which would shout out such slogans wherever lights are being left on unnecessarily, especially in factories and offices, but not only there.
The worse case to my mind still is the abandoned school somewhere – I must admit I have forgotten where – where the council leaves on all the lights at night just in case a burglar enters and hurts himself and then might decide to sue the local authority responsible for the building.
We are always told to turn off lights that are not needed at a particular time, as well as appliances, etc. but those that should be, and we are always being told are, at the forefront of the fight against climate change and who are prepared to fine householders for excess refuse themselves seem to apply a completely different criteria when they think that someone might (have a right to) sue them if he breaks into an empty disused council owned building and hurts himself in the dark. I always thought that any self-respecting burglar would bring a flashlight anyway. This is litigation culture gone wrong. But I digressed.
Kill those lights...
The same applies for the appliances left on unnecessarily, whether the PC monitor while the PC is not in use for a while – I do not, necessarily, advocate turning off the PC every time because powering it up, so I understand, takes more power than it would just left idling when not in direct use for a while. The monitor though should be turned off, and I mean, turned OFF. It has a switch; USE it!
Kill those lights...
The amount of them left on unnecessarily just drives me somewhat mad, and the main culprits are not the ordinary householders, though they are bad enough, but industry, retail and even, and especially, government, local and central alike. While, as said, they preach at the general public, that is you and me, to turn off our lights, to take appliances out of stand-by, etc. and even threaten to fine us for leaving lights on. That is a threat that is being talked about in the same way as they talk about fining people for producing too much rubbish, they themselves do not seen to be subject to the same rules.
Kill those lights...
© Michael Smith (Veshengro), December 2007