Simple Suggestion #200... Try some Earth Hour activism

As much as I like the idea of Earth Hour, which started in Australia seven years ago and is now the World Wildlife Fund's annual big splash, I think it needs to go much further if we want to save our planet for future generations. I've been hearing some very scary numbers lately about the rapidly increasing effects of global climate change, making me wish our governments would get with the program and take some really serious steps toward clean energy and less use of fossil fuels. Sure, it would create some immediate hardships, but better small inconveniences in the present than huge climate disasters in the future...

I know I'm always preaching to the choir here, but it's time to seriously consider more ways to reduce human impact on the planet. If our governments aren't thinking about clean energy, we need to demand it of them. This Earth Hour, as I sit in 60 minutes of candlelight and otherwise find ways to reduce my energy use, I'm going to take paper and pen (ZERO electricity use for that hour at our house) and write a letter to the leader of my country, the person who holds the environment portfolio in government, my personal representatives, and the folks who run my local community, and remind them to look at the Earth's bottom line -- our air, soil, water and resource use. I want to tell our officials that we need to go further in reducing our energy use in order to preserve the health of our planet, which sustains our health. After all is said and done, we are only as well as our environment!

Of course, letter writing only goes so far. Governments are thick-headed, and it takes them too long to get the message, so we also need to do our part. By all means, turn off the lights, walk instead of drive, employ those Rs -- reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, repair, refurbish, re-everything rather than wasting anything -- and walk lightly on the planet. Check out your personal environmental footprint at www.myfootprint.org and discover other ways to reduce the size of it. Be Earth friendly for the entire year, not just an hour.

Join me?

With gratitude to Jeremiah Armstrong and WWF Canada for the use of this e-card.

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Click here.