The annual Earth Hour event is here again folks. In case you haven’t heard Earth Hour is a big ol’ event started in 2007 in Sydney. That first Earth Hour, 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008, more than 400 cities, thousands of businesses and over 50 million people around the world participated.
This year, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), among other organizations, wants you to turn off your lights for the 2009 annual Earth Hour.
Depending on where you live Earth Hour is taking place tomorrow (it’s still Friday in my time zone) on Saturday March 28th at 8:30 - 9:30 pm.
The idea, according to WWF, is that by “Taking part in Earth Hour 2009, you’ll send a message that the US must act now to slow climate change.”
Am I on board?:
Not so much. I didn’t participate last year, and I won’t be participating this year. Here’s my issue with Earth Hour - it’s a one day solution idea. It’s grand scale when really all the little choices we make each day are the ones that truly add up and create change. I mean, imagine if everyone agreed to use cloth napkins all year, carpooled each day, or gave up all but one TV set? These are things that would create massive change; more so than flipping a switch off for one hour.
I hate that events like Earth Hour create a feeling that “being green is a novelty” instead of promoting a being green everyday sort of feeling. You can turn off your lights for one hour to what, prove a point? However, in the end, your point is hypocritical if you leave your cell phone charger plugged in all day, use paper napkins, own three TVs, and so on for the rest of the year. One hour is not enough. I should, to be fair, point out that the Earth Hour website does promote long term change, it’s just that the event itself does not.
On the flip side:
IF observing Earth Hour makes a tree hugger out of a former non-eco-friendly individual, I suppose it’s a good thing. We don’t know if grand gestures create change or not though. For the people I know, it’s the small steps that seem to work better to create long term eco-change.
Plenty of folks disagreed with me last year though. Lots and lots of people had good reasons for participating. I personally can’t justify it. If you are on board with Earth Hour, you can sign up to participate at the official Earth Hour website, learn about cool fun to have with the lights off, and find more helpful tools for the fight against climate change.
SO: Are you participating? Let me know why or why not in the comments…
[image via stock.xchng]
So how was your Earth Hour experience? Did many people in your neighborhood joined? If you’re wondering how it went in other countries, here are some of the Earth Hour links I found
1. Cities switch of lights for Earth Hour
2. Aussies turned on by Earth Hour switch off poll
3. Canadian Press
4. Bloomberg
5. Xinhuanet
I wish there is a live sattelite feed somewhere where a sattelite hovering the earth catches the powering-off of these lights during the Earth Hour. I imagine that if a lot of people joined, we’ll be seeing a big vertical area of the Earth (the timezone at 8:00pm) with very few lights, and every hour, another area goes off. Now that’s a very nice scene to watch.
Just a reminder for all those people who will be participating in the Earth Hour. If you already forgot, I made a post last Feb about a unique global event that will happen this Mar29 which is called Earth Hour.
What: Earth Hour
When: Saturday, March 29th – from 8 p.m to 9 p.m
How: Just turn off your lights for 1 hour
The event is just a few hours away so don’t forget!
I just got an email from greenexchange.com regarding a world wide event called “Earth Hour”.
Green Exchange is proud to be a sponsor of Earth Hour, a global initiative designed to raise awareness about climate change and to demonstrate that by working together, we can make a difference.
On February 15th, Mayor Daley announced that Chicago is the official flagship city for this important worldwide event where for one hour Saturday, March 29th – from 8 p.m to 9 p.m. — residents, businesses, landmarks and organizations are being asked to voluntarily turn off their lights to reduce energy consumption.
I don’t know about you but count me in!
An hour of no lights is not bad as you think. You can still watch TV if you like, or have dinner with candle lights.
A small one hour worth of saved electricity may not seem a lot but if you multiply that by the number of participants, that’s definitely a lot. I just wish a huge number of families participate in this small effort. If you have a blog, and email list, an egroup, kindly help spread the word. I’m doing my share by blogging about this event, so what’s your share?
