Earth Hour 2009
Including Kingston, 2,398 cities, towns and municipalities in 83 countries have already committed to participate in Earth Hour 2009. For many around the Limestone City, it will be lights out on Saturday, March 28th from 8:30pm ’til 9:30pm. Last year, I participated in Earth Hour by turning off everything in my house and headed out to document the steps the city, businesses, and residents were taking, which can be viewed on our YouTube channel. This year, Kingston desperately need to get more people to participate in the hour of darkness, in order to ensure more local residents are thinking about curbing global warming. Considering CKWS’s latest poll regarding whether or not Kingstonian’s will use their green bins (66% said no), this year could be a tipping point of sorts. So if you didn’t participate last year, please read this as Kingstonist’s personal challenge to you. And if you plan on being a part of Earth Hour, I would ask that you help spread the word and convince friends, neighbors and co-workers to enjoy some candlelight, and tv-free living for a mere 60 minutes. It’s not that long, and it’s not that much to ask.
Since I get a vote – i vote no to earth hour. More busybodies telling me how to live my life – no thanks. Trying to guilt folks once a year into turning out the lights for an hour is in my view practically useless.
How about instead ensuring that every government / institutional building is fitted with internal motion detectors so that half an hour after the last worker has left the office, the lights go off rather than blazing all night?
As a child of the dark days of the ‘oil crisis’ of the 1970s, I was raised to run around turning off every unused light in the house, something I still do to this day. So instead, I think I will likely celebrate my independance by ensuring that right thinking busybodies don’t get to establish the new normal and leave exactly the same number of lights on at earth hour as I would any other night (which isn’t many – just enough).
Count me out of this foolishness…..
cheers, junior
I certainly wasn’t attempting to impose any guilt, moreso encourage people to embrace an environmentally friendly approach for one evening. I agree that turning off lights for a mere hour, and going about a normal consumptive/wasteful lifestyle the rest of the time is not the solution. That said, I think the upside to programs like Earth Hour is that they raise awareness, and help motivate people to get behind the necessary changes (including but not limited to energy conservation) that will go a long way.