Earth Hour 2012

We've just finished participating in Earth Hour 2012, where people are encouraged to turn off all unnecessary electricity for an hour at 8:30 PM (local time) on the last Saturday of March.  This year we did even better, because we turned off all the lights and information technology (computers, etc.--but we didn't unplug things like our internet router or our refridgerator) and spent the hour reading by oil lamps.

So we got to experience the past (in a minor way).  We discovered it was dim, smokey, and sooty.

So after the hour was up, we turned on one lamp to continue reading (and I'm posting using my computer's battery), but left all our other electricity off.  We like doing this, both as a symbol of willingness to contribute to our planet's energy and environmental problems, and as an experience of our past (and hopefully, not our future....)

We found out about Earth Hour a few years ago from an educator from the NC Zoo, Miss Melinda.  Earth Hour began in Australia, and she was Australian, although I don't know that is why she knew about and/or publicized it.  Anyway, she sent out the information to our Zoo Club, and we've been observing it ever since.  Unfortunately for us, Miss Melinda has gone back to Australia, but we will never forget all the lessons she taught us---including the importance of participating in Earth Hour.

Earth Hour 2011

It's going to be a short post tonight, because our house is celebrating Earth Hour--the world-wide campaign to shut off lights and non-essential electrical devices for the hour of 8:30-9:30 PM on the last Saturday of March as a reminder of our need for lifestyle changes to prevent climate change.  We were rushing through the clean-up from our latest Presidential Palate dinner (details coming in a future post) so we could turn off all the computers and household lights, gather in one room upstairs in our separate sleeping bags, and read by the one light we left on.  It was quiet time, and we've decided that we would leave the lights and computers off for the entire evening (other than short usages, such as turning on the light when we go into the bathroom and such).

The only problem is that this is usually the time I'm posting on my blog.  So I'm writing this on my laptop using battery power, and am making it short and sweet.

My four favorite things about Earth Hour 2011:
1.  Having a quiet evening of reading with my family
2.  Being part of an international effort to make the world better (albeit in a tiny way)
3.  Playing with the YouTube special Earth Hour light switch, which turns the YouTube background page from white (on) to black (off
4.  Watching this Earth Hour video


It's a small thing.  But that's something that I'm always telling my son--that small things add up.

So I'm getting off the computer now and shutting it down--WITHOUT even having checked my email!  YIKES!  That's a big deal for me.....