Earth Hour - Lights Out!
Yesterday, cities across the globe started turning off their lights in support of Earth Hour. Earth Hour started out in Sydney last year and since then other cities and coutnries have joined the movement.
In the US, I don’t think Earth Hour has gained any media mileage. At all. For one, the political circus in town seems to be, well, more entertaining. And in a nation spiraling into recession, the economics of being green is not such a welcome alternative. There are still a lot of holdouts among US citizens regarding the green movement, I’ve heard the phrase often enough, “oh it’s just a cycle … it’s always been like that in the history of the planet …, “it’s just a Gore propaganda to win the nobel prize …”, “it’s not workable, the economy is going to get hit …”, “why the H should we … let those chinky-eyed orientals clean up their act first …” and many more …
But the message might just be trickling into the local mindset and a great example is San Francisco and other cities in California as well as New York. San Francisco is banning the use of plastic bags and plastic water bottles, New York city is introducing the “green” cab, giving rebates to cabbies who go green. It’s a start.
On march 29th, the golden bridge is said to be turning off its lights in support of Earth Hour. Hoooray for SanFo! Other cities in North America who will be joining Eearth Hour are Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
From 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM , we are all encouraged to shut off our lights and help reduce carbon emission for an hour.It does work, yesterday, an hou’s lights out resulted in 10.2% redution in carbon emission.
Panicking at the thought of actually having time on your hands not involving electronics? Think candlelight dinner, shadow puppets for kids, talking to each other face to face instead of across the room? There are many creative ways you can spend an hour without electricity.
