Earth Hour

I was browsing the web over the weekend and came across a strange sight (no, not 'site', although I do know some strange ones but that's for another post!); The Google search page had been given a black background. Now, I'm used to them changing their logo for special occasions or certain festive seasons but changing the background was something new. I immediately wanted to find out why.

It turns out they were encouraging users to participate in an event called Earth Hour. The idea started out in Sydney, Australia in 2007 whereby businesses and homes would switch off all the lights in their buildings for one hour. Now in 2008, other places around the world joined in. It's a way to say to the world, I'm committed to using less energy and want to make a difference in order to save our planet.

I'm no tree-hugging hippy (with apologies to tree-hugging hippies) but I would like to think of myself as environmentally conscious and I do try to take steps to reduce my personal impact on the environment. so this idea of an "Earth Hour" appealed to me. That said, the event was due to take place on March 29th 2008, at 8PM local time and I happened to be looking at website on March 29th 2008, with about 8 hours to go. However, it's not really a big deal to turn off your lights... I didn't have to arrange for a baby-sitter, or race to hospital breaking all land speed records known to man and nobody had to die. As it turned out, it was quite fun.

My three year old son was in awe of the lights being out and our apartment being lit by candles. He kept asking why we had turned out all the lights and I tried to explain it to him the best I could (in a way that he has a hope of understanding). He didn't seem to care much (hopefully in the future he will) but he did think the candles were cool. It actually felt cozy and warm with candles all over the place (we had them in several rooms) and gave me a great sense of tranquility. I can't quite say I went as far as to immediately begin meditating, I actually watched some TV (yes, I know it's an electrical appliance), but it's a start!

And therein lies the problem with the world today. People are either not willing or refuse to accept that energy consumption and waste production is a problem, or they believe that the problem is not significant enough to warrant any action. it's a crying shame that this is the prevailing attitude since it really wouldn't take much individual effort to have a huge positive impact on our environment.

Now, I'm no scientist but one thing I do know (and I've been saying for some years now), our weather seems to be getting wacky. Not necessarily warmer, but definitely more wild and extreme. I don't know why that is, I'm sure there isn't one single cause that could be pin-pointed as being the culprit but I do know that humans probably account for a large proportion of the cause. Humans are stupid, the only species on Earth that kills themselves and others for fun, greed or out of plain idiocy. So, it's not a great stretch to imagine that we are sucking the life out of our planet and slowly killing ourselves in the process. We have the intellectual power and the physical technology to rapidly slow that process if not eliminate it altogether. Bury your head in the sand if you want but you'll get no thanks from future generations.

Earth Hour is a great opportunity to get involved and stop pretending that we as a species are better than we really are. If simple things like switching lights off when one is not in a room and turning off appliances when they aren't in use is too much effort then we will truly get what we deserve. If, on the other hand, you think that turning your lights off for an hour is not such a horrific prospect after all, then start looking into other small ways in which you can make a difference and save our planet. All it takes to get started is one Earth Hour.