LeftinLowell and Earth Hour
I’ve signed up for Earth Hour (yes, Mr. Lynne, that means you too). Have you? For one hour tomorrow (Saturday) night, take the time to unplug, light a candle, and shut off the lights.
Though only an hour out of our lives, Earth Hour (which began humbly enough, now whole cities have signed on) seeks to raise awareness of our electrical consumption. Only after you become aware of your use of power will you take steps to conserve energy, an important component of going green.
It’s not too late to commit to Earth Hour. And if you have human-powered lights or electricity I think it would be fine to use that during this hour. 
March 29th, 2008 at 6:51 am
Please do not advise people to use candles. Unattended candles are responsible for many tragic fires. Instead, battery operated lights can be used. Family story telling around a flashlight or even just cuddling for an hour could be fun.
March 29th, 2008 at 7:47 am
Candles are fine if they are safely enclosed and well attended. Just don’t leave them lying around the house where you aren’t, is all. I use the glass-encased Yankee-Candle-style candles all the time.
March 29th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Do we really want to return to the Dark Ages? This is as meaningless as not buying gas for a day. People will buy the gas they need the day beofre or the day after. People will use their appliances either before or after the hour.
March 30th, 2008 at 8:35 am
It is a symbolic gesture to raise awareness of our electrical consumption, so that we can learn to reduce it. Unlike the gas thing, which is a misguided effort to affect the price of gas - not to reduce our consumption.
In other words, it’s aimed at how we behave - not at how companies behave towards us.
I think this could be quite effective. Sure, the dishes and laundry will be done before or after, but people won’t be making up for lost TV time, or leaving lights on an hour later, so it will clearly cut down on consumption. Hopefully, however, a lot of people will realize there are other things to do than watch tv and browse the internet…umm, ok so i’m out of here then.
March 30th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Exactly what tim said. (Also what I said in my post, by the way, though tim put it better.) This isn’t about the one hour, it’s about becoming conscious about our consumption, period. You can’t fix a problem that you ignore 2 hours a day, 356 days a year.
There are so many posts I’ve read across the internet about people having a great time off-grid, without the TV or internet, spending time with loved ones. Our society could use a few more hours like that. Maybe then we’d stop bowling alone.
I just spent 45 minutes meeting and chatting with a new neighbor. I was outside looking at and measuring my frontage for reworking the landscaping, and by saying “hi!” I got a chance to meeting someone new. It turns out he has use for the stone dust I’m trying to get rid of from taking down the backyard pool. (For use in making concrete.) I was wracking my head trying to figure out how to get rid of it! If we all take the time to reconnect to our communities, we all benefit, and you never know how you can help each other out.
March 30th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Oh by the way, gaming by candle light when in the middle of combat was a little tough (bit hard to see the dice and character stats!), but it did set one hell of a mood!
Of course, the heroes got their butts kicked by very powerful vampires…half the party got mind controlled or knocked out. That was fun (for me at least, as I was the GM!).
March 31st, 2008 at 8:58 am
We happened to be sitting down to dinner with the kids at that time, which made it a special candlelight occasion. The only downside was that our neighbors on all sides apparently didn’t participate, so it felt kind of useless.
March 31st, 2008 at 1:08 pm
You have a year to talk to your neighbors for next years’ Earth Hour!