Earth Hour took place this year again, it was tonight at 8:30-9:30pm. Earth Hour is a global event organized by the World Wildlife Fund, which is held every year on the last Saturday of March. The event revolves around taking action on climate change by asking households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and other electrical appliances for one hour. Toronto had a concert set up this year for people that wanted to part in this event. It’s really neat seeing on the news all the cities around the world turning off some of their lights. I think it’s a good cause, even for an hour, an hour isn’t a lot at all. More than anything, it is about awareness.
For more information, click here.
Did you take part in Earth Hour this year? What do you think of it?
Yes I did! I went for a walk…well I am still outside. I saw a few squirrels..could have been something else
It was kinda fun, even the street lights were off & nearly my whole neighborhood took part. I could see half the lights on in Toronto Downtown from the beach though.
I see Boo is taking part by shutting SC down 😛
A little late but better than never!
I was cleaning but I did post about the Toronto concert last week, I hope some sc’ers got out to it.
http://smartcanucks.ca/free-earth-hour-concert-downtown-toronto-ontario-march-27th/
ya I went for a walk too, that was my plan all along, the weather is nice so why not? We kinda cheated though by going to Tim Hortons, they were participating too by turning some of their lights off.
Cool Sally I will link your post in the original.
I think I will make a bonfire next year or catch some fireflies in a jar LOL
I completely forgot all about it :o(
We don’t do it. We practise responsible energy use in general but we don’t participate in the “Earth Hour” movement. It’s an awareness campaign but has negligible impact on actual energy usage and carbon emissions during that hour.
(Especially when you factor in all the people driving around to look at the darkness or check on their neighbors or to attend concerts, festivals, etc… they say in 2008 in one Australian city there were 1000+ who *drove* up to the hillside to look down on the city and watch for the lights to go out.)
@ Karen – yep driving to whenever totally negates the while idea of the Earth Hour. I hope people know that.
Yes we had a lovely candle-lit conversation.
yeah,thanx to my 8-years old.first time i fully participated.in the morning got up by the voices coming from the kitchen.where she was cleaning the fridge and i was listening her with half open eyes abt expiry dates of everything.then she cleaned up livingroom,even put on sweater and went out to clean outside.
Wondering how much school teaching influence kids…)
I slept through it so I technically did, just unknowingly lol
Did you guys see the anti earth hour guy on the news? saying its hypocritical to turn your lights off for an hour when we are the biggest polluter on the planet..etc.. what a character. He had search lights on his front law and had a bbq.
We had a bonfire in the backyard and roasted hot dogs.
I sat in the dark at the top of the stairs in my house, and just enjoyed the darkness and silence for an hour. It was pretty schweet.
Damn, I forgot 🙁
I’m a bad earthling.
oops I forgot but I did have a candle going. lol does that count? I always forget! lol been thinking about it all day and then I forget. lol but you know I wonder if it makes much difference in the long run when we go back to our usual routine and stuff. we should more campaigns where people try to cut back every day and not just an hour. I think just by switching to the energy efficient bulbs you could save more in a year than with turning everything off for an hour. probably in a month but I can’t stand behind that so I am not going with that. I live in the country so no difference in terms of light out here whether people do or don’t turn off their lights. lol it is just dark. lol
@ dealsniffer – The idea is to raise awareness about how important it is to conserve energy, we should be doing it everyday, not just an hour a year.
Didn’t participate. whoopee an hour of no power. People were still posting on facebook about sitting in the dark with candlelight so they didn’t really get the point to this.
Conserve Energy? Hmmm, looking outside I see my lamp post. I know it may be the law to have them every “x” meters but we can certainly stretch that “x” meters so we can have fewer lamp posts.
If our world wanted to tell us to conserve energy, why are they building electronics that use electrically when we aren’t using them. Almost every god dam tv has a red lights that turns, not to mention gaming system and other media player. Your computer is not even meant to be shut down. Every time you shut it down it has a negative impact on your hard drive.
If we are trying to conserve energy, what it that doing to the world? Is it trying to slow down the production of making energy? We are still pumping out a lot of carbon by burning natural gas or coal. Why not make a nuclear power plant? No carbon is emitted but you got stupid people complaining about some nuclear events that might happen…its the 21st century, you think we haven’t improved on the safety of such a dangerous thing? If you are really worried about this global warming issue, stop eating beef, not only will you save millions of tons of methane gas from polluting the planet, we can also feed more people. Will this beef eating stop? NO because you got tons of red neck republicans who think they need to eat 2-3 portions of beef every day.
Yes, I did. My daughter had a sleepover and we ALL took part. We sat around candles and told jokes, invented stories and tickled each other. It was a great sleepover (different, but great!)
No. But funny how many used candles!
Most candles are made of paraffin, a heavy hydrocarbon derived from crude oil. Burning a paraffin candle for one hour will release about 10 grams of carbon dioxide.
Depending on where you live and what wattage bulb you use, lighting a candle instead of a CFL could result in a net increase of CO2 emissions.
Yes hubby & I took part. Took the opportunity to “just stop”. Wonderful feeling – not allowing myself to be “dictated to” by electronic devices such as TV, radio, or even lights on encouraging me to “keep going – keep doing”. Had to actually listen to each other and listen to our private thoughts.
This experience was a benefit in many ways.
Hey, I didn’t participate in this. I am generally pretty frugal with lights for economic reasons, so saw no reason to do anything special. Don’t really buy the whole global warming schpeel anyway…
Definitely participated..! Even if one night doesn’t really affect what’s happening… at least it helps spread awareness and gets people talking a little bit! Gotta have a little hope…
We watched the hockey game by Febreeze candle light, lol I have enough of them!
We participated! Even if you don’t believe that one hour will make a difference, it is a great opportunity/excuse to turn off the tv, the computer and the video games, and sit down with your family/loved one/friends and talk, play games, read a story, etc.
I personally think that we will be doing this a little more often in my house.
We had planned to watch a DVD with our daughters, but instead we lit some candles and played a board game. I hate to admit it, but that’s the first time in a long time that we’ve played game together – and it was so much fun! Man, we laughed.
Yes, we did. I realize that one hour won’t change the world, but if it makes people notice that they have things on that don’t need to be, and realize that they can turn those off on a regular basis, i’m all for it.
the last few years we have gone for a walk, and had a drink at a local place that observes it and powers the place by candles for the evening. last night, we walked the other way and went to the Old Mill (in Toronto). When we got there, lights were blazing and no conservation was in effect. So, we turned around and went home and played scrabble by candlelight instead. 🙂
i always put a (fake battery operated) candle in the front window when we are out. i think it signals that we are observing earth hour, not just out with lights off. 🙂
No candles for us! We have all crank flashlights and solar lights. (Except for the one battery flashlight that my hubby will not give up! lol) I, like alot of others have gone as energy efficient in the last couple of years as we can possibly afford, from lighting, to appliances etc. We did not participate in Earth hour as we were busy in our reno putting in the wiring and dimmer switches (more energy efficient) and with the proper dimmable cfl’s we will be even more energy efficient then all the candle burners out there! Plus we love all our solar lighting outside…we use it year round.
There is a spike in energy consumption 2 hrs prior and 2 hrs post earth hour. When people turn their energy back on, it runs the risks of brown outs and in addition, too much wattage is used and it wears out bulbs. Let’s not forget that candles burn a lot of CO2. So did I participate? Absolutely not because I believe in caring for the environment in a sensible approach. I will not be swayed by trends or publicity stunts.
By the time we had put the baby to bed and company had left it was 9pm! I think this need more publicity so people remember. I had done it the last 2 years, the first year I think me, my hubby and my 3 friends were the only people who did (We are from Calgary who rarely doesw anything). We were standing at the hill that overlooks downtown and no lights went out,lol. I felt really bad that we didnt do it this year, but things just got in the way. Next year for sure.
Its a wee bit ridiculous to have an earth hour concert. Unless of course all the bands are local, doing an acoustic set in candle light. Oh wait, all the bands flew in, played electric instruments and had the set lit up by spotlights – good way to conserve energy!!
I was at work in a hospital so it wasn’t safe to participate, lol. We did just change all our light bulbs in our home to low wattage bulbs which will save a ton of power, and all our new appliances are energy efficient. We generally are pretty environmentally friendly so I don’t think that Earth hour is very useful for us. I think maybe an Earth awareness day or week might be more helpful in order to give people tips on saving energy, etc. They could have segments on the news, online resources, etc, etc.
this is all BS. i’ve seen our city all littered with the ’60’ posters. many of the big buildings still have many offices lit up ALL NIGHT. and there were all these events around time, getting people to drive all over the place, polluting the air, drinking more beer, risking pedestrians to more drunk drivers…etc….etc….etc….
I was at a restaurant…totally forgot about it and I doubt the restaurant would turn off their lights to participate. This reminds me of a formal that I went to last year where they turned off all the lights for an hour while dinner was being served. I mean I like this idea but I paid $50 to go to a formal, and I had no idea WHAT I was eating and if I was cutting the chicken or not. I always turn off my lights when I leave the room and my light bulbs are energy efficient. I do whatever I can in my power to conserve energy but sometimes this Earth Hour thing is not as useful as they claim it to be.
We didn’t participate… our power already went out 3 times this week for a total of over 4 hours, so I figure we’re covered for the next few Earth Hours!
We turned all the lights out, outside lights as well, lit a candle and watched tv.
we forgot….we went for a nap which lasted a few hours…i guess in a sense, we participated without even knowing…
No, I would have if the UFC fight wasn’t on at that time…
Totally forgot… I was on the computer checking out Smartcanucks and a little later the site was closed for half an hr.
i did what i could!!I actually totally forgot until someone mentioned it so i got reminded at 8, a little reminder earlier would have been better. i unplugged a spider wire thing in my room,turned off all my electricity stuff however, some people around the house have a mind of their own and i really don’t want to start arguements over it. i lit candles,turned off all lights upstairs ( leaving just the t.v. that someone was watching on) and the light on downstairs as well as the t.v. others were watching. I really wish i could remember this every year. i should be doing it more often anyways.
The kids and I built a fort before the hour started, then went inside during earth hour to tell stories, eat junk food, and play board games. Went we got a bit stuffy, we got our flashlights and played flashlight tag in the dark. The kids had fun, and not being able to watch tv wasn’t the end of the world.
It was a big adventure at our house with the kids, too. We lit candles for the main floor rooms, turned off the TV and my husband actually turned of the computer, and we played boardgames by candle light and munched on some baked goodies. The kids were really excited and I hope the rationale stuck!
Yes I did participate. We were even in the middle of renovating my sister in laws bathroom we stopped the work gave the kids flash lights lit candles in the kitchen and talked for an hour. And for the hour we didnt open the fridge to get our beer. We left it on the counter for the hour. lol. We saved energy as much as we could. I am proud of my family and friends.
Nope, went to a hockey game.
Though the one comment about about flying the people in for the concert – yeah i agree the concert is a bit hypocritical but Chantal K lives in Toronto(some of the time anyway) so at least one performer was local
check this out guys. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nashsnazzy/3394153786/
this is supposively some guy trying to prove a point. But apparently even al gore didn’t turn all his lights out either according to some posters. i don’t know if the theory for earth day is true but regardless, i think it’s nice to not have to rely on technology for itleast an hour.
earth hour during UFC , hah
Haha we participated in our household and watched UFC on a battery powered laptop….
And why would anyone make up Global Warming, what benefits would it have to make something up like that? I don’t think the World Wildlife Foundation would have done this in sake of a publicity stunt… unless the stunt is to raise awareness, then that is the point..lol
I think the real issue is that perhaps some people don’t have to worry about the planet they live on or what they leave behind so why bother being inconviniced. Well I will be here a while and so will my children and there’s and if I can make small changes that will help the wildlife and environment I live in right now and in the future I will make wiser choices…
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