Earth Hour: What will you be doing?

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Earth Hour: What will you be doing?

by Patrick Metzger (Subscribe to Patrick Metzger's posts)
Mar 29th 2008 @ 11:01AM

Filed under: Activism

If you're a regular reader of Green Daily, you already know that tonight is Earth Hour. From 8 to 9 pm, local time, millions of people around the world will be turning off their lights to save a little electricity and show some solidarity for the planet.

Now for most of us, the notion of of voluntarily going dark for an hour is a new one, and a lot of people will find themselves bewildered and unsure what to do next. The Earth Hour website has a top ten list of helpful suggestions; genuinely eco-valuable activities like turning down your thermostat, cleaning up the neighbourhood, or holding a Green Party to talk about carbon footprints with your friends. In the same spirit, I'd like to offer a few other ideas to keep yourself occupied while the lights are out.

Hold a candlelight Al Gore impression contest. Award a paper-mache Nobel prize to the winner.

Roam the neighbourhood pretending to be a zombie.

Proclaim self-righteously to partner that turning off all the lights for an hour doesn't really accomplish anything and is just a red herring so corporations and governments can distract people from the real issues.

Go eco-looting.

Get drunk alone in the dark, like every Saturday.

Dig out hand-cranked flashlight and make shadow puppets like in old days. Quickly realize that old days weren't much fun.

Fire up some carbon arc search lights in the front yard to piss off annoyingly sanctimonious treehugger neighbours.

Congratulate yourself on your dogged perseverance for going an hour without playing Wii.

Go for a long drive with the headlights off.

Take the kids trick or treating. It's worth a shot.

Eat everything in the fridge before it goes bad.

Trip over the cat. Curse.

Huddle in the basement with a shotgun and a case of canned ravioli and pretend it's the apocalypse.

Worry that the aliens won't be able to find your house in the dark.

Comments [5]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-29-2008 @ 12:36PM

Shea Gunther said...

I'll be liveblogging Earth Hour tonight from 8-pm EST. The TV will be on, the lights blazing, and the toaster toasting so I can suck up all the energy not being used by all you do gooders.

;D

http://earthfirst.com/

3-29-2008 @ 1:10PM

Ellen Slattery said...

right on, patrick - thanks for the laugh.

3-30-2008 @ 10:01AM

Jordin said...

I turned off all the electricity in my room. My parents disagreed with the global movement and they had every light in the house on! I sat in my room, with a flash light, in the dark with my cat for an hour. And I'm proud of myself cuz it's like I'm making a comitment to the Earth. It's like I'm promising to help fight climate change and to keep our planet clean. So I don't care about all the punks that left their lights on for Earth Hour cuz if they aren't going to make a positive impact on climate change they aren't going to make an impact at all. =)

3-31-2008 @ 9:46AM

Jonathon Morgan said...

I went eco-looting with my in-laws. Scored some CFLs. Holla.

4-01-2008 @ 10:23AM

Karsten said...

I forgot about it during the day, but it does not matter. Turning off the lights is not what will make enough of a difference. Even if all Americans stop using all lights forever and all others on this planet lived like us in all other ways, we would still need 4 planets to have enough resources and energy.

Lighting is relatively irrelevant, however not heating or cooling your house as much, not using your clothes dryer, not eating meat, not driving/flying everywhere, buying less crap, but instead living small and frugally, etc. really makes a difference. I know Earth Hour is just a beginning, and it is important to start somewhere. The symbolism is a good thing. If the symbolism remains ONLY about turning off lights and making people believe that it is enough, it does more damage than good.

How about, e.g. NOT USING your clothes dryer JUST ONCE and letting your clothes air-dry? Just one hour less clothes dryer use saves the energy needed to run approx. 1800 energy efficient light bulbs for one hour. My family has saved EASILY more energy this way this winter than if my WHOLE TOWN had participated in Earth Hour. You too can easily save more energy than those who only turn off lights for an hour. That is, if you want to change your habits that much.

Karsten
--
http://www.polluteless.com
Practical Advice to Pollute Less

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