Participate in Earth Hour
Earth Hour is held annually on the last Saturday of March. It started in 2007, in Sydney and has since spread across the world. The goal of this project, organized by the World Wide Fund of Nature, is to achieve greater energy efficiency by encouraging households and businesses to turn off non-essential lights and electrical appliances for an hour. It is hoped through this to continuously raise awareness among all communities about the impact of energy use on climate change and how our own energy practices can be far more efficient.
Saving energy makes good sense and showing your solidarity with others who would like to transition to a more sustainable, energy-conscious society are two great reasons to participate in this worldwide event.
Steps
- Mark your calendar! Earth Hour is traditionally celebrated the last Saturday of March. In 2015, it will be celebrated on March 28th, from 8:30-9:30pm (20:30-21:30) in your local time zone.
- Hop onto the Earth Hour website at: http://www.earthhour.org/. See what activities are happening in your region, as well as following countdowns and stories about what other people are doing for Earth Hour in different parts of the world.
- Starting at 8:30, turn off the lights. In order for everyone to see everyone else who is participating, and to see entire parts of your local landscape go dark, go the whole way and turn off the lights. Look for solar or kinetic powered lights and charge them before hand. Many people use candles, but some avoid them because they release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than light bulbs.
- At the very least, turn off all unnecessary lights in your household. This means making sure to turn off the lights when you leave a room, turn off a lamp if you don't need it, or turning off an unneeded overhead light. Leaving on unused lighting consumes energy needlessly, and makes your Reduce Your Utility Bills even higher!
- Turn off appliances you aren't using. If you're not using your computer, then turn it off! Same goes for your televisions, Xbox, or DVD player. Encourage your whole household to go a step further. Switch right off everything and even unplug appliances that are only switched off. Most electronics still consume a low amount of energy even while they're off. You can save more electricity by doing this on a regular basis (like every night), keeping those extra dollars in your wallet!
- Tell your friends about Earth Hour! The more people that participate in Earth Hour, the more energy that is saved, along with raising more awareness.
- Make Earth Hour fun! Earth Hour doesn't have to be something boring, make it special! Consider turning off every light, leaving your house in the dark and playing hide and seek with your friends or your kids. Put your imagination to it and you'll figure out that there are lots of fun things to do in the dark, including:
- Take a nap! Catch up on some rest that over-attention to electronics has stolen from you lately.
- Write a poem or short story about what you're experiencing.
- Brainstorm energy efficiency ideas with your friends and family. Look for ways to reduce your own household's energy consumption and think of ideas as to how you can all live more energy-efficiently while maintaining a comfortable lifestyle. It's a fun and doable challenge. There are some ideas in the "Related" section below, to help you out.
- Take photos of what the area around you looks like if you're good with night photography. If lots of houses turned off their lights in your area, this could look really amazing. If they haven't done so, there's a story in that for you your documenting too!
- Write a blog post for uploading when you go back online. Talk about what you're doing to celebrate Earth Hour, why you think it is important to make this symbolic gesture and the sorts of things you intend on doing to live a more energy-sustainable lifestyle.
- Go out. Get out of your house and go and join others who are marking Earth Hour by getting together. Look for local community and local government events in the paper or online, as well as meet-ups of individuals and groups interested in sustainable living issues.
- Consider turning your Earth Hour experience into a lifestyle. Turning off unnecessary lights and appliances will save you money in the long run, along with helping lessen our dependence on dwindling resources. Thinking more about sustainable living will help you to find cost-cutting measures for your everyday life, as well as realizing that it's not about giving up a comfortable lifestyle but about finding ways to live well using and consuming a great deal less.
Tips
- There are many resources available online on celebrating Earth Hour, as well as information on how to run your own Earth Hour event. See further: http://www.earthhour.org/join-the-hour.
- Why not throw an Earth Hour party? Have friends over to eat sustainably produced homemade nibbles, read stories to each other by torchlight and play games that require dark. Just be careful not to trip over each other in the dark.
- If you want the romance of a candle, try looking for candles that you are certain are made from pure “carbon neutral” beeswax or tallow – not from crude oil in the form of paraffin wax.
- If you want to turn off all the lights, use solar or kinetically charged torches instead. Candles contribute a lot more co2 to the atmosphere than a lightbulb.
- Take Earth Hour many steps further. Do this an hour each night. Change your lifestyle by saving unneeded energy.
Warnings
- Don't leave candles unattended at any time. Blow out candles if you're leaving a room, even temporarily, unless someone responsible is watching over them still.
- Earth Hour doesn't try to fix things in one fell swoop; the idea is that this is a gesture of solidarity, a renewal reminder each year that we each have a role to play in reducing excess energy usage and respecting the limits of our natural resources.
Related Articles
- Choose an Energy Efficient Refrigerator
- Make a Fireplace More Energy Efficient
- Use Solar Energy to Heat a Pool
- Improve Energy Efficiency in a Restaurant
- Appreciate the Benefits from Free Solar Energy
- Celebrate World Environment Day
- Celebrate Earth Day
