Don't forget Earth Hour!

It's been a busy week here, thanks to a computer virus at work (grrr, why do people create these things?) so I forgot to mention Earth Hour, which runs this evening between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. wherever you are. The idea, of course, is to cut the electricity for that time and give some thought to how we can live more lightly on the planet and spread the message that it's time to make a change.

So, enjoy a little quiet candle light. Turn off the TV and/or computer, and live simply. Consider how that can translate into every day life, and where it's possible to be more of an environmentalist in your own environment. Have a happy Earth Hour -- let's do something good for all of us who depend on Mother Earth.

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?

You don't know what you've got til it's gone

Tomorrow evening between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. is Earth Hour, a time when many people make an effort to live without electricity, to give some consideration to our dependence on energy and come up with ways we can conserve it. Spending an hour in the dark is an interesting exercise in simple living. Not only does it foster a deeper appreciation for the electrical devices we take for granted, but conversation and relationship become more important than our gadgets and gizmos, as they should be.

If you watch Earth Hour coverage or commercials, you'll see that many places and people have turned it into another reason to party, but with a slightly higher consciousness of their energy use. Earth Hour has a high energy, feel good tone, saying, If you can do this, imagine what else we can achieve! That's great, but just IMAGINING isn't enough.

So what can we DO, to not only use less energy, but to save the earth's resources for future generations? Here's a basic list, in no particular order:

1. Shop at thrift stores rather than buying new. If everyone does this, all fashions will be in style, and no one will feel pressured to buy the newest line of clothing.

2. Use recycled products. If everyone does this, we will save a lot of trees in particular, but also a lot of other resources.

3. Avoid highly advertized products and seek simpler solutions. If everyone does this, we will cut down on chemical and resource use, not to mention advertizing energy and materials.

4. Reduce, reuse, recycle, recover: compost organic kitchen scraps, repair the broken, give away the good, share, and lend. If everyone does these things, we can stop extracting important elements from Earth's fragile ecosphere.

5. Dry clothes in sun and wind, or on a clothes rack/line. If everyone does this, we can get by with fewer nuclear facilities, hydro installations and coal burning power plants.

6. Grow food wherever possible, and buy local. If everyone does this, we'll be eating healthier foods and ingesting fewer chemical preservatives.

7. Eat lower on the foodchain. If everyone does this, we'll save the huge environmental costs of raising so much livestock.

8. Use rainbarrels, water-saving fixtures, and don't let clean water flow down the drain. If everyone does this, we also save energy because our water treatment plants aren't working needlessly.

9. Walk, bike, use public transit. If everyone does this, air quality will improve, as will our overall cardiovascular health.

10. Remember that every choice made matters, and that there are always earth-friendlier possibilities that might require a little sacrifice or inconvenience. And yes, imagine what else we can achieve! If everyone makes positive choices for the earth, that haunting line from Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi won't apply to the planet's limited resources -- or our existence as human beings.

Here's young Joni herself in 1970. Have a good Earth Hour!