I know a lot of people out there, people I love and respect, are turning off their lights in 45 minutes for Earth Hour. I just don’t see the point.
One hour of sitting in the dark, lit by candles, isn’t going to make any difference.
We do lots of “environmentally friendly” stuff, most of it because we are cheap.
We cloth diaper our kids. We use fluorescent light bulbs. We turn off lights when we leave a room. We line dry a lot of our clothes. We use re-usable bags for our shopping. We use cloth napkins instead of paper. We drive a hybrid vehicle. I could go on, and on, and on until you want to smack me.
Sitting in the dark won’t make one bit of difference.
All it will do is add to my baby-blues. We couldn’t turn off the server or Jason’s computer anyway as he is on call this weekend and must be connected, or risk losing his J-O-B.
The kids are already down for the night, which means this is my chance to sit, watch some t.v., read, knit, play a video game, what have you, and unwind.
Sorry politicos, but you can’t have my hour. I need it. I need my lights. I need my time.
To those of you turning off your lights and sitting in the dark, more power to ya, and I hope you get the warm fuzzies from your “effort”. Me, I’ll do something more effective for the planet than make myself miserable for an hour, thanks.
March 28th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
You and me both, toots. I’ll save my efforts for something that can make a difference.
And if I hadn’t been home, sick, I’d have been at work, where there was certainly no Earth Hour lights-out in effect.
March 29th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
I don’t think it’s just about what one hour can do, it’s a statement, a vote, a shout out to support OTHER efforts. I don’t think the people who do Earth Hour are JUST doing that (of course, some are) but instead are joining a world wide vote, and showing their support. National Landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge, Big Ben, etc, do it too, to make that statement. But, I think if enough people did do it, it DOES save energy. Every little bit counts. I’ve heard people say, “Why vote, what difference does my vote make?” I say, why not do everything you can?
March 29th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
I agree with Linda. It is about the collective voice that boosts awareness in the global community. In my home, we live the “Earth Hour” attitude. That one “Earth Hour” was our show of support to the rest of the world.
March 30th, 2009 at 9:18 am
I guess I missed the whole earth hour thing… I thought it was large cities taking a stand to be conscience and make the rest of the world notice how important conservation can be.