A retroactive Earth Hour, all year long

Oops! I missed it! Completely, this year. Usually I put in a good word in these moodlings for the World Wildlife Fund's efforts toward Earth Hour every year, and participate myself, but somehow, it escaped my notice until Friday afternoon, when someone posted a little ad somewhere and I said, aloud, "Oh, it's Earth Hour tomorrow night!" Unfortunately, that was the extent of my observance this year, sigh. During said hour, I was actually sitting in a darkened theatre, watching a play (that referenced the law of thermodynamics, of all things)! So much for Earth Hour 2015.

Did you miss it? Have you missed it in the past? I'm not sure how to make up for my failure to participate. But here's a list of possibilities:

1. I could give up hot drinks for a week. The electricity it takes to boil water is fairly significant.

2. I'll dry my laundry outside. An electric dryer can account for up to 15% of household electricity usage.

3. Do I really need to eat toast for breakfast every day? Toasters consume energy, too. Maybe I'll have fruit instead.

4. I've been getting a bit lazy about turning off power bars for the electricity vampires (computers/TV/microwave and other small appliances) in my house. I'll get back on that bandwagon.

5. I can have my own Earth Hour sometime this week, and enjoy an evening in quiet darkness, maybe with a candle, playing Boggle with Julia.

The thing about Earth Hour is that it's a great tool for building public awareness of humanity's overuse of the earth's energy resources, but if it's only one hour a year, what difference does it really make? Sure, it might be fun to see the lights lowered where I live and participate in that, but it's supposed to carry into our daily lives, too.

This was the ninth Earth Hour, and it's no longer a new idea for most of the planet's human inhabitants. The novelty has worn off to the point that electricity companies are reporting a decline in the amount of energy saved during that hour in comparison to earlier years. I don't think Earth Hour is collapsing by any means, but maybe it's time to take it to a new level for the tenth anniversary Earth Hour on March 26th, 2016.

Any ideas for the tenth anniversary? Something that will really engrave the importance of saving energy on everyone's conscience for another ten years? If you have an idea, leave it in the comments below, or better yet, send it to the World Wildlife Fund, and your own political representatives, to let them know that saving the planet is important in your books.

In the meantime, how are you living Earth Hour 2015 every day of the year?