Futile gesture?

I am much more aware of my carbon footprint than I used to be - and I hate waste.  So that's why I turn off lights wherever I go if they aren't needed.  Last week I turned off some lights in the Royal Society's building before I gave a talk there; last year I amazed a group of environmentalists by scrambling on the floor to turn off some lights in 10 Downing Street after a meeting; and I once stopped giving a talk at a conference until some lights had been turned off in the room! 

Will this make a difference?  Of course it will, but of course only a small one.  However, the turning off of unnecessary lights seems to me to be symbolic of what we need to do - let's start with the easy things, that won't hurt us much, that actually save us money and that are completely within our own control.  We will have to do more - much more - but if we can't even do this then we are going to have a tough time making the necessary changes to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050.

So each time I enter the communal entrance of the building where the RSPB's London Office is situated I turn off some lights.  However, I often find that someone has turned them on again a bit later in the day - and this war of the lights seems like a stalemate.  I think I am outnumbered!  I once followed a lady into the building who turned on the lights (that I had turned off a few minutes earlier as I went out for a coffee!) and said to her companion 'Someone keeps turning these lights off'.  A few paces behind her I turned them off again and said 'Yes, it's me!  I'm trying to do my bit to save the planet!'.  She looked nonplussed but didn't hit me.

It takes a certain amount of nerve to go around being a light extinguisher - so I'd value your support.  Will you join me and turn off the occasional light even if people think you are a little bonkers?  Post a comment on this blog on whether you will join me and on how you get on  - I'd like to think that I'm not alone. But maybe I am!